State tennis: Kapaun’s Whitaker becomes fourth in Kansas history to four-peat titles
Clara Whitaker delivered a perfect ending to one of the best careers in Kansas high school girls tennis history.
The Kapaun Mt. Carmel senior wrapped up a 31-0 season with a straight-set victory (6-1, 6-2) over teammate Reagan Boleski to win her fourth straight Class 5A singles championship on Saturday at the Andover District Tennis Complex.
Whitaker became just the fourth girl in the state’s 50-year history of the sport to win four singles titles, joining Kapaun’s Megan Russell (1993-96), Osborne’s Brittany Dietz (1997-00) and Topeka Hayden’s Brooklyn Hunter (2015-18). The Wichita State commit finished her career with a 125-5 record.
“It feels amazing,” Whitaker said. “I get so nervous before tennis tournaments, so it makes it all more special afterward.”
Kapaun coach Kathy Schulte has been around to see some of the best state champions from around the Wichita area. She thinks Whitaker made a case to be the best of the best.
“You can always speculate who would have been better and who would have won this or that match,” Schulte said. “But Clara has got to be right there at the top. I would put her at the top. She’s just that good, she really is.”
Whitaker might not hit the hardest, but what sets her apart from her peers is her ability to combine pace with accuracy. She can create angles no other player can because of this, then she is persistent in her pressure that overwhelms opponents.
While Whitaker has all of the physical tools, the strongest part of her overall makeup might be the mental side of the game. She won all four of her matches at the state tournament in straight sets and won 48 of 53 games.
“It really is just amazing to watch,” Schulte said. “She’s so steady, so calm and she knows exactly what to do. She doesn’t rattle easily. There was never a time this year when I went over at a change-over and she seemed at all rattled or not sure what to do.”
Whitaker said she developed that mentality with her private coach Lucy Kovalova, a former Shocker tennis player and one of the world’s top pickleball players.
“She pushes me so hard,” Whitaker said. “She’s really tough on me and every practice is hard mentally. But it’s paid off and I feel like she’s taught me to not take anything for granted.”
For the last five years working with Whitaker, Kovalova said she tries to create practice sessions that are more demanding mentally and physically than any match could be.
Even though Whitaker’s mentality is strong enough to become a historic state champion, Kovalova said it’s a work in progress with her student.
“I can still get under her skin,” Kovalova said, smiling. “Eventually when I’m not able to do that, then my mission will be accomplished.”
This wasn’t the first time a Whitaker has won a state championship at Kapaun.
Clara’s older sister, Emma, now a golfer for Oklahoma State, won the 2016 Class 5A championship in girls golf during her senior year at Kapaun.
Watching both of their daughters win state championships in different sports was a special sight for Heather and Camden Whitaker.
“It’s been so much fun to watch because they both had their own thing in the two different sports,” Heather said. “I appreciate how special this is. It’s hard to put into words.”
“The biggest thing is when an athlete takes ownership of their sport and I think we saw that with both of them,” said Camden. “They both enjoyed practicing, they enjoyed the grind. That was just the maturity in both of them that they had at a young age.”
Andover sisters take home doubles title — After teaming up for the first time in their lives late in the season, the Andover sister duo of Emma and Sarah Sinclair are now state champions.
The Sinclair sisters defeated another pair of sisters, Bishop Carroll’s Heidi and Hope Lubbers, in the 5A doubles championship match in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.
“It’s a truly indescribable feeling,” Emma Sinclair said. “There’s no other person I could have done this with and there’s no other person I would have want to have done this with.”
The motivation for the sisters was to send Emma, a senior, out a winner. They are both accomplished singles players who had never played with or against each other growing up.
But they teamed up just before regionals and their chemistry allowed them to win every match in straight sets in the postseason.
“I wanted to do this so much for her since this is her senior year, last year playing,” Sarah Sinclair said.
“Our whole lives have been leading up to this moment,” Emma Sinclair said. “That was an incredible feeling being able to let go of all of that emotion.”
With 24 team points, Carroll edged Kapaun (22) and Andover (16) for the third team championship in program history. Carroll had the third and fourth-place finishers in the singles field with senior Paige Stranghoner defeating freshman Brynn Steven in the third-place match.
Trinity, Collegiate bring home 4A titles — Trinity Academy sophomore Isabella Sebits showed how much she has improved in the offseason with her win in the Class 4A singles championship match over Collegiate’s Emma Mantovani in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0.
When the two met last season in the semifinals, it was Mantovani who dispatched Sebits in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. But Trinity coach Michael Bond said Saturday was a showcase of how much work Sebits has invested in her game to improve.
“She made the final look easy, but it took a lot of hard work for her to get there,” Bond said. “(Mantovani) has been a very difficult opponent and Isabella showed a great determination. She put in the work in the offseason and it paid off.”
It was a dominant state performance by Sebits, who dropped only six games total in four straight victories. Fatigue likely played a factor in the finals, as Sebits was coming off a 6-1, 6-1 victory, while Mantovani had to endure a third set to beat Circle’s Annabelle Adams, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
“Isabella’s persistence really set her apart,” Bond said. “And then her athletic maturity is just beyond her years. She’s just a sophomore. She has this very tough and resilient mindset when it comes to tennis and she doesn’t let people rattle her cage. Today was all about going out and playing to her potential.”
Lily Conrad and Ella Graham, a pair of Collegiate juniors, took home the 4A doubles championship in straight sets, 6-0, 6-4, over Circle’s Lanna Chase and Kenzi Gillispie.
Collegiate won the team title with 27 points, nine more than second-place Circle, thanks to Conrad and Graham’s title, as well as high finishes from Mantovani (second) and Sonya Murphy (sixth) in singles.
This story was originally published October 17, 2020 at 4:32 PM.
.jpg)