Several tennis players from the Topeka area punched their tickets to next week’s state tournament. It was a busy weekend at the regional championship with the top six singles players and doubles teams qualifying for state.
Regardless of classification, the state tournament will be a two-day event beginning Friday and finishing Saturday.
Here are the Shawnee County players who will be playing in the final tournament of the season.
Class 6A
Washburn Rural and Topeka High will both be competing in the state tournament. The two Shawnee County teams competed in the Wichita Southeast regional on Thursday. Washburn Rural’s Carolina Alvarez-Chedzoy and Julia Katzer qualified as singles.
Alvarez-Chedzoy secured second place in the regional tournament while Katzer took fifth place as a freshman. The team of Emerie Catlin and Elizabeth Haggard won the regional doubles side with a 6-1, 6-1 championship match score. The pair enters the state tournament with a 21-4 record as Washburn Rural won the regional team competition, too.
Topeka High’s Madeline Deters qualified for the state tournament. She finished in third place in singles. She won 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the third-place match to highlight the day. Deters will be joined by Ava Ritter and Hailey Caryl. The doubles pair took fifth place and they have a 22-8 season-long record.
The Class 6A State Tournament will be played in the Kansas City area at Harmon Park Tennis Complex hosted by Shawnee Mission East.
Hayden tennis: Ainzley Zulueta ‘glad to be back’ after missing junior season
Class 5A
Seaman will be the only Topeka-area representative in the Class 5A State Tournament. The Vikings dominated the Bonner Springs regional on Saturday.
Emma Sweeney won singles and Molly Gorman took second place to punch their tickets to the final tournament. The two teammates faced off in the regional title as Sweeney won 6-1, 6-1. Sweeney holds an overall record of 27-3 while Gorman sits at 26-4.
The doubles team of Sidney Chinn and Peyton Henry will be playing in the state tournament. They took first place in the regional tournament. Kaylyn Hiebsch and Camryn Lux also qualified in doubles. They took second place as they faced their teammates in the championship match. Chinn and Henry won the title match 6-4, 6-0 on Saturday.
The Class 5A State Championship will be hosted by Andover Central High School with the tournament being played at the Andover District Tennis Complex.
Class 4A
Hayden will be well-represented in the state tournament after a strong regional performance. It qualified all of its players for the final weekend. Ainzley Zulueta continues to be a force as she won the singles title with a 6-0, 6-0 win in the championship match. She did not drop a single match on Saturday. Grace Funk secured a spot in the state tournament as she took third place in singles play.
Hayden’s Emily Sheetz and Sophia Wichman took the doubles title, too. The duo won 6-1, 6-1 in the championship match to become regional champions. Avery O’Bray and Izzy Glotzbach will join them at the state championship after earning fifth place.
Hayden will host the Class 4A State Tournament with it being played locally at Kossover Tennis Center.
Class 3-1A
Cair Paravel’s Madilyn Poole is the lone qualifier from Shawnee County to reach the state tournament. She finished in second place of the singles division in the Marysville regional on Saturday. Poole enters the state tournament with a 19-6 record.
The Class 3-1A State Tournament will be held at Riverside Tennis Complex in Wichita.
Liam Keating covers high school sports for The Topeka Capital-Journal. Send stats or information to him at Lkeating@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka-area tennis players punch tickets to state championship
