CHANUTE, Kan. – The Chanute Blue Comets claimed the 4A Regional tennis title on their home courts this weekend. They were paced by a regional title from the doubles team of Ayden Cummings and Logan Bilby. Chanute qualified their full allotment of players for state and finished at the top of the team standings along with Bishop Miege with 20 points while Iola came in third place as a team. Mosiah Fawson of the Mustangs took home the singles championship.
Cummings and Bilby opened their doubles tournament with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Brennan Bull and Daniel Caster of Paola in the quarterfinals after receiving a first round bye. They went on to dominate the rest of the tournament, beating Joe Charles and Owen Meyers of Bishop Miege 6-1, 6-0 in the semis and then beating the other Stag duo of Zeke Rodriguez and Max Lukert 6-0, 6-1 in the championship match. Also in doubles, Leo Suarez and Harrison Vaughan qualified for state. They also had a first round bye before a 5-7, 6-2, 10-8 win over Matthew Gunther and Dan Welch of Baldwin in the quarters. They lost their semifinal match to Rodriguez and Lukert of Miege before a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Charles and Meyers of Miege in the 3rd Place match, finishing in fourth overall.
In singles, Fawson had a first round bye for Iola and beat Xander Johnson of Baldwin 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Kemper Manley had a first round bye for Chanute and beat Ashton Roberts of Ottawa 6-4, 6-0 in the quarters. He met up with Fawson in the semis and Fawson won 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 for Iola. Fawson then went on to take the championship match over Leo Gill of Bishop Miege 6-0, 6-3. Nathan Guernsey of Chanute had a first round bye as well and picked up a 6-1, 6-0 win over Lawson Hubbard of Baldwin before falling to Gill in the semis 6-3, 6-4. Guernsey met his Chanute teammate Manly in the 3rd Place match with Manley coming out on top 6-2, 6-1 as both players qualified for state regardless of the outcome.
All of the area athletes that qualified for the 4A State Tournament will compete at Topeka’s Kossover Tennis Center this coming Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16.
