BREAKING: SME & BVN announced KSHSAA state co-champions

After miscalculations in the score for the girls tennis championship, KSHSAA has determined that Shawnee Mission East and Blue Valley North are State Co-Champions. 

At the original state tournament, the weekend of Oct. 18-19, East was announced as the champion. The difference in scores had come down to winning by .00005 of a point, which was equivalent to about one game throughout the whole tournament. The girls from each team got together and smiled for a picture after the tournament. 

However, they forgot two matches, which caused a more significant difference. 

According to sophomore and state team member Eva Kading, there had been rumors through the week that the coaches and KSHSAA were going over the scores again. 

On the following Wednesday, Oct. 13, the first recalculation of the score revealed Blue Valley North as the real champion.

The six East state players — juniors Allison Wilcox and Quinci Cartmell, sophomores Eva Kading and Bridget Epstein and freshmen Bryson Langford and Greta Stechschulte — were called to the office and were immediately upset over the score miscalculation after thinking they’d won for four days. 

“I feel like with it being that close obviously there was going to be some controversy,” Kading said. “So I wasn’t expecting the whole title being taken away . . .  we were really surprised and really sad.”

Around two weeks later on Nov. 7, the girls were called into the office again so that Athletic Director Debby Katzfey could tell them that they had been announced Co-Champions. 

According to Kading, the girls were excited about this announcement and ready for this confusing experience to be over with.