Kyle Pearson of Highlands Ranch defeated Luke Trujillo of Colorado Springs 1 up on Tuesday afternoon in a quarterfinal battle of state high school champions at the Colorado Junior Match Play Championship at Black Bear Golf Club in Parker.
Meanwhile, in the girls tournament, top-seeded Amy Chitkoksoong of Aurora, the 2017 girls 5A state high school champ, chalked up two victories on Tuesday to advance to the semifinals.
Also making the girls semis were Emma Bryant of Aurora, Sydney Eye of Golden and Josie Baker of Sherman Oaks, Calif. In Wednesday morning’s final four, Chitkoksoong will face Baker and Bryant will square off with Eye. Chitkoksoong won this title in 2015 at age 14. Bryant has been the most dominant player so far, winning her matches 5 and 3, 8 and 6, and 6 and 5.
Joining Pearson, a finalist in the CGA Match Play earlier this year, as semifinalists on the boys side are top-seeded Jack Castiglia of Lakewood, Luke Travins of Colorado Springs and Ty Findlow of Lone Tree. In the semis, Castiglia will play Travins and Pearson will face Findlow.
In Tuesday’s quarterfinals, Trujillo birdied the 15th and 16th holes for wins to square the match, but Pearson parred No. 17 to win the hole and he and Trujillo halved 18 with pars.
In his quarterfinal, Castiglia was 2 down through 12 to Kirby Coe-Kirkham of Sheridan, Wyo., but squared things with an eagle on the 15th, then went 1 up with a birdie on the 17th before halving No. 18 with a par.
And Findlow beat Tyler Severin of Johnstown with a birdie on the 19th hole after being 2 down through 15 holes.
The winners of this morning’s semifinal matches will meet in the finals on Wednesday afternoon.
For the brackets for each tournament, click on the following: BOYS, GIRLS.
