When the volleyball landed out of bounds and the state championship match was over, Colten and Gavin Mortensen had prepared for that very moment for years.

It started back in elementary when volleyball was introduced to the brothers and continued once they put on a Williams Field uniform.

In between there were countless hours of working together in the backyard on grass, or on the neighbor’s sand court. They attended practices for a girls club team because boys sand pairs didn’t have many opportunities.

Regardless of the time spent or not matter where they had to go, the Mortensens put in the work to be state champions.

It came to fruition on Nov. 19 at Casteel, when the Mortensen brothers became the first Arizona state champ in boys beach pairs.

“It was super special, and it was the goal all along,” Colten said. “We were able to follow through. It’s a lot of work. It was a super cool feeling.”

Colten is the senior. Gavin the sophomore. Colten is 6-foot-2. Gavin is 5-10. Colten is the blocker. Gavin is the defender.

Together they are state champs.

“It took a minute, almost like it didn’t happen,” Colten said about the feeling when the decisive point scored. “We did a lot of work. The commitment to get the extra reps wherever we could helped. We came in undefeated and so was (the opponent). We had to be at our best.”

The opponent was Mountain View’s Matix Williams and Max Ashby. The Mortensens won 21-19, 21-17, having barely trailed throughout the match.

They finished the year 18-0 and won 36 of the 41 sets on the season, including eight of nine in the state tournament.

“Winning a state title is great, and winning it with your brother is even better,” Gavin said. “There was lot of feelings, and satisfaction of the work paying off.”

Although the tandems from each team never played each other during the season, the first year the Arizona Interscholastic Association sponsored it as a varsity sport, there was a lot of connection.

Colten and Williams have played together as a pair before, and Williams Field coach Tim Raymond is Williams’ uncle.

“I think it did help that I knew some of Matix’s tendencies,” Colten said. “But it didn’t matter who we were playing, we were taking care of our business. We weren’t going to let anyone stop us.”

Once it was announced the sport was going to begin varsity competition in 2025, they knew they were going to be digging their feet in the sand together.

“It was good timing because it’s Colten’s senior year,” Gavin said. “We just knew it was going to be us, and once we started playing, we were beating everyone. We had some tough matches, but we always figured out and no one beat us. It’s something we will always have together.”

Crown the champs

There were several wrestling tournaments last weekend as team start slowing down as the holidays approach.

The Husky Invitational at Horizon saw just a handful of champs from the East Valley in Highland’s Rohan Frost at 106, 138-pounder Peiton Weeks of Poston Butte, 190-pounder Easton Filetti of Poston Butte, Highland’s Dominic Kaut at 215, and heavyweight Slade Wheaton of ALA-Ironwood.

The Hawks won the team race with 197 points, with Thunderbird (167), Poston Butte (140.5), Desert Edge (134) and Horizon (129) rounding out the top five of the 14-team event.

At the 54-team La Costa Canyon Hamada tournament in California, two East Valley teams made the trip with Corona del Sol finishing fourth with 184 points and Casteel coming in at seventh with 134.5 as Esperanza won it with 318 points.

Casteel’s Jaxon Hamilton came back with a championship at 190 pounds. Other placers for the Colts were Vaughn Strobel in third at 157 and Mahlon Pobstman in eighth place at 144.

The top placer for the Corona was Sebastian Martinez in third place at 165.

Other placers for the Aztecs were Caden Morris in fourth at 175, Jonah Owens in fifth at 120, Diego Vasquez in fifth at 138, Caden Gorishek in fifth at 157, Baylor Veres in fifth at 150, James Collins in sixth at 106 and Miles Brown in eighth at 190.

Hoops roundup

There are some teams off to a good start in the East Valley.

In 6A boys standings, Chandler won its first eight non-tournament games heading into Tuesday’s action, while Highland is 6-0 and in 5A Mountain Pointe is 7-0.

In 4A, Arcadia is 6-0, ALA-Queen Creek is 3-0, while 3A Valley Christian is 4-0, and Seton Catholic is 6-1. San Tan is running well in 2A with a 7-0 start, while Gilbert Classical is 7-1.

The area’s leading scorer is Mesa’s Jakyi Miles at 26.3 points, while Seton Catholic’s KJ Fauske is averaging 24.8.

Among the top 10 in the state in rebounding are Tempe’s Deryke Tucker at 13.9 and Gilbert’s Malachi Jones at 11.1.

When it comes to assists the leader from the East Valley is Fransico Lopez-Felix of Marcos de Noza at 6.1 per game, to rank No. 6 in the sixth. McClintock’s Kyler Frey is ninth at 5.9.

Soccer success

If the early results are any indication, the 6A girls soccer title might run through the Premier Region as four teams - Casteel (3-0), Basha (3-0), Hamilton (2-0-1) and Perry (4-1) – are a combined 9-1-1 entering Wednesday’s action.

The standings in the 5A East Sky Region are similar as Notre Dame (3-0), Az College Preps (2-0), Horizon (2-0), Chaparral (1-0) and Campo Verde (3-0) are a combined 11-0.