WINFIELD, Kan. – McPherson High School Boys Tennis closed off a hard-fought season in the State Tournament Saturday, May 17 in Winfield. The team placed 6th out of a stacked crowd of teams in 4A.
After winning the Regional Championship, the team headed to Winfield for the two-day event. It ended with Regional Singles champion Cooper Bohme placing 12th and Regional Doubles champs Alex Berger & Bryson Archer finishing in 5th.
Despite winning Regionals, Bohme entered as the No. 11 seed out of 24 athletes. Bohme won his first match 6-2, 6-3. However, he fell in a tough tiebreaker in the quarterfinals, sending him to the losing bracket. He then won two straight matches before losing to the eventual 5th Place winner and then falling in the 11th place match 8-5.
Owen Neighbors competed in Singles as well, winning in tiebreaking fashion in his first match, then lost in the 2nd round of the winner’s bracket, also in a tiebreaker. He won his first consolation tournament match to close off Friday’s hard-fought day. He’d finish the tournament falling in his second match of the consolation bracket.
Berger & Archer started the Doubles tournament with a first round bye, earning the No. 5 seed in the tournament after winning Regionals. They swept a Scott City duo to advance to the quarterfinals, but fell in three sets to a Hayden duo that eventually finished 4th. They did not lose a match for the rest of the tournament though, placing fifth in the bracket. Jonas Emery & Mason Eisenbarth also competed in the Doubles tournament, but went 2-2 on the day.
Parsons and Winfield shared the 4A title after tying for the top spot. Buhler placed in 3rd just one point behind them, closely followed by Hesston and Independence. CLICK HERE to view the full results of the 4A State Tournament.
Despite no state hardware coming back to McPherson, head coach Tyler Brown said it was an incredible season. “This year’s team faced adversity head-on and showed tremendous resilience and fight from start to finish, including at the state tournament,” Brown said. All six of our players battled in either full two-out-of-three set matches or went to third-set super tiebreakers. It truly couldn’t have been any closer to all six advancing to Day 2. Had those close matches gone our way, we would’ve been right in the mix with the top programs in the state. Despite not bringing home state hardware, I couldn’t be prouder to have coached this group. Their determination, sportsmanship, and teamwork were outstanding.”
The team does end the season with multiple accolades, including their Regional Championship in Scott City, winning as a team and individually in Singles and Doubles. The two Doubles duos of Archer/Berger & Emery/Eisenbarth earned AVCTL Div. 3/4 All-League honors.
The 5th place finish for Archer and Berger earned them All-State Doubles honors. The duo, along with Bohme, also earned Academic All-State honors.
“McPherson Tennis represented our school and community exceptionally well in 2025,” Brown said. “This team set a high standard both on and off of the court and the future is bright.”
