ShawneeDispatch.com

The Maranatha Academy boys tennis team has seen high individual finishes at the 3-2-1A state championships before, including an individual champion and runner-up.

Yet this year’s Eagle squad broke new ground for a vaunted program: the Eagles’ best-ever team finish, placing third at the tournament Friday and Saturday in Wichita.

The Eagles were led by sophomore No. 1 singles player Bryan Thomas, who took fourth individually. Thomas’ finish helped the Eagles accumulate 27 team points to finish ahead of Claflin for third. Traditional 3A power Wichita Collegiate outpaced Conway Springs by four points to earn the team title.

Maranatha senior Joel Petterson was edged out 9-6 in a tiebreaker match for seventh place on Saturday but still scored valuable points for his team in the singles division. On the doubles side, the Eagles were led by the sixth-place finish of junior Kyle Reighard and sophomore Seth Swank, followed closely by eighth-place finishers senior David Kidd and freshman Drew Swank.

For Maranatha coach Karen Hayes, the satisfaction of the Eagles’ finish was hard to grasp at first because of the team’s four losses in their final four matches. Yet, with time, the magnitude of the team’s placing has begun to sink in.

“There was both satisfaction and ‘unsatisfaction’ at then end,” Hayes said. “We didn’t win any of our last four matches, but we still had enough points to get third at state. The boys tried; it’s just that sometimes it doesn’t go your way. In the end, the most important thing was that this was the best our school has ever done. We had six players and all of them medaled.”

The tournament took place at Wichita State University. Of the 28 state 3-2-1A teams, the best 18 were represented in Wichita in a tournament that impressed Hayes and the large Maranatha contingent that traveled with the team.

“It was really, really nice,” Hayes said of the tournament. “It was nicely done. All the boys had their parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and girlfriends down there. It’s a lot of tennis. If you’re not eliminated in the first two matches, you play four or five times.”

As expected, the competition was a notch above regular-season scheduling, and the fact her players were able to compete with the best impressed Hayes.

“It is really, really good competition,” Hayes said. “If you aren’t focused at state, you’ll find yourself out really quickly. I hope that our success against that type of competition will attract players into our program who are competent and quality players.”

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