A new set of competition didn’t detour Wichita Collegiate from taking home the 2012 boys 4A state team tennis title on Saturday. Collegiate racked up a team score of 38 points, that mark topped McPherson (25 points), Parsons (20 points), and Independence (19.5 points).
This season Collegiate tennis moved to 4A play after having a storied legacy of state championships in 3-2-1A.
“This was a dog fight…kids had to play great in every match, they had to play hard in every match”, said Collegiate head coach Dave Hawley.
Hawley spoke to Catch It Kansas after finding out his squad had just landed the team title for 2012.
“I think that’s the biggest thing, everyone contributed” added Hawley.
On the singles side of play for Collegiate Travis Osland and Samuel Beren both advanced to the quarterfinals of play before coming up a bit short.
The senior tandem of Clay Holden and Hunter Morris from Collegiate came in third place in the doubles side of the bracket. Holden and Morris defeated the duo Parker Robertson and John Paul Hurley from Parsons in that third place game.
Last year at Topeka’s Kossover tennis center all the buzz was over star player Jack Sock…but that was 2011. In 2012 all the chatter was over singles player Quinn Dippel of Smoky Valley. The senior bound for Creighton University was as advertised; Dippel picked apart his opponents en route to the 2012 4A singles title.
Dippel faced Topeka Hayden sophomore Blake Hunter in the finals, Dippel took care of business in orderly fashion 6-1, 6-1 over Hunter.
“There was definitely a lot of pressure, and I like the pressure actually”, said Dippel after his state title victory.
On the outside Dippel was showing pure confidence heading into his last high school match…on flip side Dippel had to mentally calm himself down before facing Hunter.
“I was pretty nervous before the match because he is a good player, I just wanted to get it done so I did”, added Dippel.
Dippel ends the 2012 season with a spotless record; his win on Saturday ended an illustrious high school career which saw Dippel capture three individual 4A state titles.
After the Dippel victory fans and tennis enthusiasts alike were treated to a wild ending to the doubles finals.
Evan Keller and Brian Peck of Wellington squared off against Gavin Webster and Tyler Posch of Independence high school.
The match was a marathon style affair between the two sides, it didn’t help that the match was delayed 30 minutes because of rain.
In the end it was Independence who captured the title over Wellington by a score of 5-7,6-3, and 6-1.
Independence head coach Ken Brown spoke with Catch It Kansas as his duo of Webster and Posch received their first place medals.
“We closed it out and it was an awesome win for my boys”, said Brown.
Both Posch and Webster are juniors, there coach expects them to make a run a state title next season.
“Very proud of them, hope to have them right back here next year”.
