The boys’ tennis team barely edged out Blue Valley North (BVN) to win first place overall at the Sunflower League State Tournament held this past weekend in Topeka. The doubles team consisting of senior Jake Glazar and freshman Jack Santilli took first place in the doubles category while junior Jamie McDonald and sophomore Reese Goulding took second. Junior Brooks Kendall took third place in the singles category. Points were awarded to the team based on placing and East ended up in first place with 48 points, just four more than BNV.
“It was a little scary,” coach Sue Chipman said. “Our second doubles team had to play a tough match against BVN.”
Play went back and forth in terms of who held the advantage. East would win one set, but then Blue Valley North would win the second.
“It could have gone either way honestly, but it went our way luckily,” Chipman said. “I think that [match] was the difference in the whole state title.”
If East and BVN had tied, the state championship would have been determined by percentage of games won and lost. Chipman believes that if it had gone to that, the team would have received second place overall instead of first.
“Trey Daniels, [BVN] singles player, won [singles] last year and won it this year,” Chipman said. “He doesn’t let many people win…. and we were lucky we won that match.”
This is Chipman’s seventh time coaching a boys team who has won state. She is planning on retiring from teaching this year but not from coaching.
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