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Timpview players, coaches and family celebrate the T-birds 5A team state championship. May 16, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Timpview's Ryan Austin receives hugs from coaches immediately following his No. 1 singles championship win. May 16, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Timpview's Ryan Austin smashes a serve during his No. 1 singles championship win over Lucas Sparks on Saturday. May 16, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Spanish Fork's Lucas Sparks celebrates a point during his No. 1 singles match versus Ryan Austin on Saturday. May 16, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Timpview's Rowan Halladay returns a volley during his No. 2 singles championship match on Saturday. May 16, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Teams fraught with adverse circumstances can either have it negatively affect their play or use it to rise to the occasion, but seldom does it make no impact whatsoever.

Fortunately for the Timpview boys tennis team, it was definitely the latter effect that came into play during its thrilling and emotional capture of the 5A state tennis championships on Saturday.

The T-birds entering the final matches locked in a dead heat versus Skyline and needed wins by both Ryan Austin in the No. 1 singles match and Rowan Halladay in the No. 2 singles to take a second-straight team championship. Fortunately both players came out on top with Austin defeating Spanish Fork’s Lucas Sparks in three sets (4-6, 6-3, 6-4) and Halladay needing all three sets to get by Skyline’s Sammy Loewy by remarkably the same exact score.

“I thought I played really well from the start, but Lucas’ level of play was crazy,” Austin said of his match. “He pushed me to my limit, but being able to come out on top with how well Lucas was playing was amazing. It definitely took the best tennis I’ve played in my life to win it.”

Lucas took a 4-3 lead in the final set before Austin bore down to win the final three games and take the championship. Key to him doing as much was breaking Lucas’ serve to go up 5-4 with the ability to take the match on serve.

“Lucas didn’t make it easy, though. He scored two incredible points to start off that final game and again pushed me to my limit,” Austin said. “But I was able to rally and finish strong, play the best three games of my life at the end, and doing it with Rowan over there on the court next to ours made it that much more special.”

Austin lost narrowly in the semifinal round a year ago, making his run this year all the more special. The senior was quick to credit his teammates and coaches, but also another person in particular for helping him come out on top.

“My mom is absolutely the No. 1 reason I was able to win this today,” Austin said of his mother, Tammy Austin. “She’s trained me, she’s driven me everywhere to prepare me for this moment and it all goes to her.”

The Timpview faithful rushed the court after Austin’s win to celebrate with most of them adorned with special T-shirts that read ‘Tribe of Levi’, and for a very good reason.

A week before Saturday’s competition, Timpview’s Levi Teemant had to be life-flighted to the hospital following a serious car wreck that fractured his spine, head among several other serious injuries that left him in critical condition.

“He’s been in critical condition, but he’s been hopefully still improving,” said Timpview coach Emmet Hart. “It’s been it was tough on all of the guys, especially to get that news right before we were about to go play in the state tournament … But the shirts we ordered, and we got everybody on the team and parents and other guys shirts just to support Levi to know that he’s here with us. We know he’s here with us, and uh we’re doing it for him, absolutely.”

Teemant was set to participate in the No. 2 doubles competition, but due to his condition, it made Timpview’s ability to compete or even field a competitive No. 2 doubles team very much in question.

“We were able to appeal to have a substitution player come in and play at second doubles, and he was key for us as well in uh winning the state championship,” Hart said. “We were able to get Blake (Baker) in there to play for Levi and he, along with his partner, Tommy Goeff, they got it done and we needed it. I know both of them were very emotional after, and for good reason.”

Baker and Goeff took the No. 2 doubles championship with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Skyline’s Seth Oliver and Jensen Lewis.

All of it made the atmosphere a bit more more somber than otherwise, with everyone involved mindful of Teemant and his critical condition throughout.

“It’s a super difficult thing to do,” Hart said. “We went to the hospital just a few days after it happened to visit Levi, and that’s it’s tough, and it’s emotional for those kids to sit with Levi, to be in the room with him given his injuries and everything that’s happened. But I think the team really rallied together. It’s a horrible situation, but it it brought our team together, and we went out there and we did it for Levi. I think all the guys knew that in every match, that that’s what we were doing for him. That’s why they wore the shirts. They wanted to keep them on. We had players wearing them through their matches through the state final to support Levi, and it it was a big deal for us.”