ARKANSAS CITY, Kan.—
When the dust settled in Arkansas City, six singles players and six doubles teams have made it to the state tournament, with Bishop Carroll taking the team title by 1 point over Andover Central.In the doubles tournament, the relatively green Ark City duo of junior John Rohr and sophomore Macen Vargas used the encouragement of the home-town crowd to best Bishop Carroll seniors Christian Lollar and Jordan Torres in the regional championship match.
“I loved it with the home crowd,” said Vargas. “Our last regional we just didn’t have anybody there. W just had to cheer ourselves up. It felt really good to have a whole row here.”
Rohr and Vargas outlasted Lollar and Torres 6-4 in the first set, but the Carroll team stormed back in the second to even the match with a 6-3 win.
In the third and deciding set, the Ark City team regrouped to edge out the match with another 6-4 win.
“We have won tournaments before, but we’ve never won a tournament up to this caliber,” said Rohr. “So it feels really great. It’s not even real to me yet.”
In the singles tournament, Andover Central’s Tom Flynn took Carroll’s Jared Ohm in straight sets, 7-6 (4), 6-4. And he did it with a cold.
“I’ve got a sore throat,” said Flynn. “It’s killing me.”
Both finalists matched each other in the first set, with Flynn coming out on top in the tiebreaker to set himself up to make a quick match of it and take the title.
“It’s my first regional win and it’s exciting,” said Flynn. “I hope I can play well at state and use it.”
With a finalist in both the singles and doubles tournaments, Bishop Carroll finished with 17 team points, enough to beat Andover Central’s 16 to take a team championship.
See below for a complete list of state qualifiers from the Ark City regional in the order of their regional finishes.
Singles:
1. Tom Flynn—Andover Central
2. Jared Ohm—Bishop Carroll
3. Mathew Schrader—Andover Central
4. Steven Wegner—Andover
5. Neal Supernaw—Valley Center
6. Thomas Wittler—Kapaun
Doubles:
1. Rohr/Vargas—Ark City
2. Lollar/Torres—Bishop Carroll
3. Holbrook/Zemanick—Bishop Carroll
4. Bond/Gazda—Andover Central
5. George/Salgado—Kapaun
6. Klenda/Lahey—Kapaun
