Many of Wichita’s best tennis players survive 5A ‘region of doom’
It may not be a state championship, but a title from the Class 5A boys tennis regional hosted by Arkansas City on Saturday was about the next best thing.
After producing two of the top-3 singles medalists and all four doubles semifinalists in last year’s state tournament, the same collection of Wichita-area tennis powers were once again grouped together with only six spots available to next week’s state tournament.
Andover, Andover Central, Arkansas City, Bishop Carroll, Kapaun Mt. Carmel, Maize South and Valley Central were all capable of qualifying three, if not all four of its entries to state in another regional.
On Saturday, at the J.C. Louderback Tennis Complex, many of the best in 5A went head-to-head just to earn one of the six coveted spots to next week’s state tournament.
“It was the region of doom,” Ark City coach Aaron O’Donnell said. “There were (potential) state qualifiers who didn’t even make it out of the first round here today.”
Carroll’s Brandon Steven emerges with impressive run to singles win
While every singles player is still chasing Blue Valley Southwest’s Sanjay Rajkumar, the defending 5A champion, the Ark City region featured arguably his three greatest challengers with a combined 55-4 record: Maize South junior Evan Goates, Ark City senior Dawson O’Donnell and Carroll freshman Brandon Steven.
In the end, it was Steven who claimed bragging rights — at least for this week — after outlasting O’Donnell in a 3-set thriller, then topping Goates in a well-played, tightly-contested final.
“Historically, our region has always been really tough so to take first place as a freshman is huge,” Carroll coach Darren Huslig said. “It’s a statement to how much work he’s put in to get to where he’s at. He’s all in on tennis and he takes this seriously and he just battles for every single point, that’s for sure.”
There was no better example of that mindset than the semifinal match against O’Donnell, as Steven lost a tiebreaker in the first set.
Not only was losing a marathon set demoralizing, Steven was up against a senior playing on his home court and he was experiencing cramping in Saturday’s heat.
“Nobody would have blinked twice if he would have disappeared that second set,” Huslig said. “He could have just said, ‘I don’t got it today.’ But his mental toughness is so impressive for a freshman. He just kept digging and digging.”
It took around three hours for Steven to pull off the comeback, as he won the next two sets in convincing fashion, 6-2, 6-1. Meanwhile, Goates was rested after his opponent retired in the second set of his semifinal.
Steven’s poise once again shined in a highly-anticipated first meeting between two of Wichita’s best in the final. This time, it was Steven who won a tiebreaker in the first set and he finished off the match with a 6-4 victory in the second set over Goates, who played in the 5A finals last spring.
While it was Steven who came out on top this weekend, all three of the top competitors know the order could easily be different next weekend at the state tournament.
“It’s definitely going to be a big motivational factor for Evan,” Maize South coach Frank Reyes said. “Quite honestly, I’m glad he lost this one. I’d rather him get punched in the mouth right now than at the big dance. And now he can use it as motivation for next week.”
Doubles drama decides Ark City regional title
The singles field on Saturday could produce three of the four state semifinalists next week, but the doubles field in Ark City could very well repeat last week’s feat of producing all four.
Adding to the drama on Saturday was the rivalries recreated in the final matches, as Andover’s duo of Andrew Chan and Isaac Homan topped Andover Central’s Jaxon Post and Elias Kachelmeier in the finals while Kapaun’s Johnny Korfhage and Trey Lacy beat Carroll’s Gabe Weber and Braeden Dugan in the third-place match.
It was the fifth meeting this season between the top doubles teams at Andover and Andover Central, as Chan and Homan (30-3) won their third straight match over Post and Kachelmeier (27-3) after the Andover Central duo retired early in the first set of Saturday’s championship match due to an illness. Meanwhile, Korfhage and Lacy (20-5) exacted some revenge on Saturday after losing in the City League finals last week to Weber and Dugan (20-6).
In a testament to the tournament’s competitiveness, both of the consolation matches to go to state in the doubles bracket went to a third set. The Valley Center duo of Braxton Nicholson and Gabe Shaffer needed a third-set tiebreaker to beat a quality Maize South team of Lucas Balthrop and Austin McPheeters, while Andover seniors John Rather and Pierce Anderson topped a 21-win duo from Andover Central in Dayden Cunningham and Carson Holcomb to punch their ticket.
“Unfortunately, the coaches are used to (a tough regional,” O’Donnell said. “That’s just the way it’s going to be until KSHSAA lets us do super regionals like they do in wrestling and combine two regionals into one and just have two super regionals for each class or just take away the geography restrictions. Until that happens, it kind of is what it is.”
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