Timpview boys tennis crafts epic tale of grit and determination to win historic 2025 5A state title
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- The Timpview boys tennis team poses for photos with the first-place trophy after winning the 5A state tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Timpview senior Nick Gerstner serves the ball during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Timpview senior Davis Gunnell hits the ball during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Timpview seniors Nick Gerstner and Davis Gunnell celebrate scoring a point during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Timpview senior Braden Meier hits the ball during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Timpview senior Nick Gerstner serves the ball during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Timpview senior Davis Gunnell hits the ball during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Timpview senior Braden Meier hits the ball during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- Timpview senior Braden Meier serves the ball during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- The Timpview boys tennis coaches pose for photos with the first-place trophy after winning the 5A state tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- The Maple Mountain doubles team of junior Henry James and Caden Gillette compete during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- The Maple Mountain doubles team of junior Henry James and Caden Gillette compete during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
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- The Maple Mountain doubles team of junior Henry James and Caden Gillette compete during the 5A state boys tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 10, 2025.
“Don’t give up … don’t ever give up.”
Those seven words were most famously said by the late Jim Valvano, the former NC State men’s basketball coach, back in 1993 but could also be appropriately described as the rallying cry for the 2025 Timpview boys tennis team.
There were so many times during the final day of the 5A state tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday that Thunderbirds could’ve decided their dream of winning a state championship was just too far out of reach.
But they never gave up.
Their combination of grit, determination, skill, unity — and a little luck — wove together to create one of the greatest tales in the storied history of Timpview boys tennis.
The Thunderbirds have an impressive tradition of success in the sport, winning the most state titles in school history. They had won 18 of Timpview’s 99 total team titles heading into the 2025 competition — but hadn’t one since 2016.
First-year Thunderbird head coach Emmet Hart understands that legacy and pressure that comes with it, since he was part of two second-place teams and one third-place team when he played at Timpview in the late 2010s (he didn’t get to compete his senior year because of the COVID-19 pandemic).
“It was always tough,” Hart said. “I lost in a couple of finals, although the outcome of the team competition had always been decided before I started my matches.”
He had returned as an assistant coach in 2023 (which was a down year for the program) and 2024 (where the T’Birds finished third).
But he knew this year’s Timpview squad had a lot of skill and experience, including having five seniors.
Even more than that, though, was the fact that they knew what they wanted.
“I would describe this team as united and singularly focused,” Hart said. “We had three goals this season, go undefeated in region play, win the Ashton Invitational and win state, and we stayed singularly focused on that big three goal right there.
“All the guys dedicated their season to those three goals, and they were united in doing it. It was not just a group of seven guys playing together. It was seven brothers on a team pulling for each other at every given moment, which is special to see.”
Hart said one of the Thunderbird players who exemplified that drive and focus was senior Nick Gerstner.
“He fought tooth and nail to earn the spot (on Timpview’s No. 2 doubles team) in the last few weeks of the season,” Hart said.
The T’Birds put together a phenomenal season and entered the 5A tournament as one of the favorites, with the No. 1 doubles team of seniors Luke Clark and Joe Jurca, the No. 2 doubles team of Gerstner and senior Davis Gunnell, and No. 3 singles senior Braden Meier all getting top seeds.
But standing in the way were a pair of other talented teams from Skyline and Highland.
After the first day of action on Thursday, Timpview had made it to four semifinals — but so had the Eagles and the Rams were in all five semifinals, meaning Highland had a narrow 3-point lead.
Things didn’t go as the Thunderbirds had hoped early on the final day of action as the Ram No. 1 and No. 2 singles players easily rolled into the finals, while Timpview junior Ryan Austin battled hard in his No. 1 singles semifinal but lost to East junior Cohen Anderson (6-3, 6-3).
Highland was on the verge of slamming the door on the T’Bird title dreams and there was only so much Timpview could do about it.
“We knew that Highland needed to lose two more matches, basically, for us to have a chance,” Hart said. “There was a point today (Saturday) where there were six total matches left, and whether that match was us playing or somebody else playing, they all needed to go a particular way for us to have a chance. Four of them were our matches, and then two of them were matches involving other teams.”
But the Thunderbirds got some heroic performances from Skyline players to turn the tide.
First, in the No. 3 singles semifinal, Eagle freshman Sammy Loewy beat Ram junior Ilario Noyes in three sets, 6-2, 4-6,6-3.
Then came the shocker in the No. 1 doubles semifinal as Skyline seniors Theo Mowdood and Jasper Mowdood rallied from losing the first set and being down 5-4 in Set 2 to Highland seniors Thomas Mcdonough and Timo Van Beurden. The Eagle duo went on to win in a dramatic third-set tiebreaker, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).
With Timpview getting Meier and both doubles teams through to the finals, suddenly Hart knew they had a real shot to win.
“We knew that all we had to do was win out at the spots we had left,” Hart said. “Once we knew we could control our own destiny so to speak, we felt a lot more confident.”
But it wasn’t going to be easy.
Meier, Jurca and Clark took care of business in No. 3 singles and No. 1 doubles, winning their matches in straight sets — but Highland did the same in No. 1 and No. 2 singles.
That set up a dramatic, rarely-seen showdown in the final championship match of the day at No. 2 doubles as Gerstner and Gunnell faced off against the Highland duo of senior Jonah Watt and junior Thomas Gardner with the state title at stake.
“It’s the first time in 27 years that the final has been decided by the final match, which is almost always at second doubles,” Hart said. “The last time that the teams who were in first and second met in the final match with the championship on the line was in 1998.”
Gerstner and Gunnell only had 30 minutes rest after their grueling three-set semifinal showdown against Skyline senior J Lewis and sophomore S Oliver, one the Timpview team had eked out, 7-6 (6-4), 6-7 (7-5), 6-3.
It looked like the Thunderbirds might have run out of gas in the first set of the title match as Watt and Gardner dominated and one easily.
But Hart didn’t panic at the early setback.
“I still felt confident because I knew our guys were coming off of a three-hour battle,” Hart said. “That first set was going to be a lot of recovery tennis, since they only got a 30-minute break before that final match. But Gunnell can serve 130 miles an hour and when he started putting those serves in, we felt really comfortable in that second set.
“We knew holding serve and putting returns in play that will ultimately put us in the best position to win.”
Gunnell and Gerstner settle in and got to work, pulling away to win both the second and third sets comfortably to secure the 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 win.
When Timpview finally nailed down the last point to cap their epic performance, Hart said it brought a mixture of emotions.
“It was a mixture of relief and elation,” Hart said. “There was relief because it was a stressful time and a long week. But the elation was amazing.”
Gerstner, who had pushed so hard to even be on the state team and then was part of the championship-winning moment, couldn’t contain his emotions.
“I saw him start crying immediately, before the ball even bounced out, and I started tearing up,” Hart said.
Then it was pandemonium as players and fans rushed the court in jubilation, a celebration that included Hart getting the traditional bucket of water dumped on him.
“It was very exciting and very fun,” Hart said. “There were over 250 people watching that final match, which is a lot for high school tennis in Utah. Half of those were our supporters and I think that made a big difference.”
Timpview ended up two points ahead of Highland in the team standings (54-52) while Skyline finished third.
The Thunderbirds never gave up and in the end got the bounces they needed to secure the 100th team state championship in Timpview history and the 19th overall in boys tennis.
“Boys tennis has always been a powerhouse at Timpview,” Hart said. “We’ve had a drought in the last decade, but that’s really special for me. To have us be the team to come in and win the 100th was really big.”
