By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Junior doubles champions Cale Deutscher and Dylan Willingham led the way Saturday as Washburn Rural captured the team championship in a Class 6A tennis regional at Wichita.
Washburn Rural tennis won a Class 6A regional title Saturday in Wichita after previously winning city and Centennial League championships. [Washburn Rural tennis]
Deutscher and Willingham downed Derby's Collin Bale and Garrett Haupt 6-4, 6-3 in the championship match, improving to 21-1 on the season.
The Junior Blues also got third-place regional finishes from junior Keegan Knudtson and from juniors Ben Tryhus and Kieffer O'Connor in doubles as Rural won the team title by an 18-14 margin over Manhattan.
Topeka High junior Tres Lassiter finished second in singles in Saturday's Class 6A regional in Wichita. [File photo/TSN]
Topeka High junior Tres Lassiter advanced to the singles final, dropping a 6-1, 6-3 decision to Manhattan freshman Jay Hoke in the championship match as Hoke improved to 29-4 while Lassiter is now 26-5.
Rural's Knudtson (19-9) took a 6-4, 6-1 decision over Derby's Tyler Bradt in the third-place singles match while Tryhus and O'Connor (13-10) took a 6-2, 6-2 win over Topeka High senior Alex Raymond and junior Christian Sink (18-10) to finish third in doubles.
Washburn Rural has now swept city, Centennial League and regional team titles entering Friday and Saturday's 6A state tournament at Junction City while High's Lassiter will finish off his first season of high school tennis with a state appearance and Raymond and Sink qualified for state in their first year as a doubles team.
Seaman tennis followed up its UKC team title with a runnerup finish in Saturday's Class 5A regional tournament, qualifying its entire team for state. [File photo/TSN]
Vikings qualify entire team for 5A state
Seaman followed up its United Kansas Conference championship with a strong performance in Saturday's Class 5A regional at Bonner Springs, with the Vikings finishing second as a team while qualifying their entire team for state.
The Vikings got third and fifth-place finishes in singles from freshman Camden Dutton and senior Ethan Winters while Seaman juniors Dayton Schneider and Owen Stewart finished third and junior Wesley Budge and freshman David Budge placed fifth in doubles.
Dutton (23-9) took a 6-0, 6-0 win over Piper's Chri Htoo in the third-place singles match while Winters (24-7) finished fifth with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Topeka West senior state qualifier Mark Cianciarulo (23-8 ) in the fifth-place match.
Schneider and Stewart (26-11) took a win over Topeka West senior Julian Ramcharan and freshman Collin McGee (25-12) in the third-place doubles match (score unavailable) while Budge and Budge (20-9) finished fifth with a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3 win over Basehor-Linwood's Luke Broxterman and David Barnett.
The 5A state meet will be contested Friday and Saturday in Salina.
Shawnee Heights' Brock Corley qualified for the Class 5A state tournament in singles with a fifth-place regional finish Saturday in De Soto. [File photo/TSN]
T-Birds' Corley earns 5A state berth
Shawnee Heights senior Brock Corley posted a fifth-place singles finish in Saturday's Class 5A regional at De Soto, earning a berth for Friday and Saturday's state tournament at Salina.
Corley, the United Kansas Conference singles champion, took a 6-2, 6-1 win over Spring Hill's B. Browning in the fifth-place regionals match.
Corley will take a 22-9 record into the state tournament.
