Hutchinson sweeps top matches, Northwest claims team title

After being asked to move from doubles to singles late in the season, Hutchinson’s Stephan Banz was a bit shocked. He considers himself a better doubles player, but after taking home the singles championship in his Class 6A Regional, he’s hoping to make a splash at state in his first appearance.

“To get first at regionals and probably get a good seed overall…I’m really excited,” Banz said.

The senior cruised through his opening match before faltering in the first set of his quarterfinal match against Garden City’s Sebastian Kyaw and Banz could feel the pressure mounting.

“Oh gosh,” Banz said, covering his face, at the possibility of stumbling early and missing his shot at state.

“I just have to go play my game and not his,” he said. “You’ve got to be patient with every point and that’s one thing I’ve got to work on, but overall think I did pretty good with that today.”

Banz battled back to win the match 4-6, 6-1, 12-10 before dispatching Northwest’s Seth McDaniel and Austin Awtrey in straight sets for his first regional title.

The Salthawks also captured the doubles title with veterans Ryan Hickman and Sam File leading the charge. The duo dropped just three games on the day and defeated Evan Riggs and Brian Clark of Garden City, 6-1, 6-0, in the finals.

Hickman will be making his fourth trip to state and it will be File’s second appearance. The pair is hoping their experience will pay dividends in next week’s state tournament.
 
“We know what to expect,” Hickman said. “You’re still nervous because it’s state, but you just know everything that’s going to go on and you’re not in shock.”

“Going to state last year and going to state this year is pretty exciting,” File said. “I’m very fortunate that we played well today.”

Northwest claimed the team title with 16 points, but more importantly, qualified both singles players and doubles teams for the state tournament.

“That’s the main thing right there,” Grizzlies head coach Mike Thomas said. “It’s been three years since we had someone qualify for state so it’s pretty nice, especially qualifying the whole team.”

To top it off, five of Northwest’s qualifiers are seniors.

“We’re starting over now,” Thomas said. “We need to get excited again and everything else and just keep preparing every day. It’s a new season now.”

Joining Awtry and McDaniel at state for the Grizzlies are the doubles teams of Brayley Bazelle and Austin Haase and Andre Wakim and Dalton Frazier.

Hutchinson, which is led by first-year head coach Wendy Queal, missed out by just one point of capturing their fourth straight team title in regional play.

“It’s a great program,” File said. “It was last year, it was the year before that, and it has been for many years. Vance VanPelt left after last year but he got us where we are now and Wendy has carried on that big load and has done a great job.”

Garden City finished in a close third with 14 points and qualified both Blake Stucky and Sebastian Kyaw on the singles side and Brennon Keller and Denton Keller for doubles in addition to Riggs and Clark.

Maize’s Trevor McChristain and the duo of Ryan Pfeiffer and Levi Koster also punched their ticket to the Class 6A State Tournament at Maize South next week.

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