By Steve Sell, sports editor
The McPherson Sentinel
Posted May 04, 2010 @ 10:58 AM
McPherson, Kan. — Doug Gayer knew with his normal lineup that McPherson High’s tennis team would probably finish second behind Winfield in Monday’s AVCTL Division II Championships.
So Gayer gambled, though he admitted it was really no gamble at all. “We had nothing to lose,” Gayer said after his revamped lineup worked like a charm to give the Bullpups their 11th league title since 1989. “Winfield was going to win. They’re just too deep.”
But the door was opened slightly when Viking standout Jaden Groene was suspended for the meet.
“With Groene not here, that made it tough on them,” Gayer said. “He’s a kid who’s gone to state and will go to state for a third year.”
What Gayer did was split up his defending Class 5A state doubles championship team of Nathan Wehrman and Mark Gayer, putting Wehrman at No. 1 doubles with Ben Davidson and playing Gayer at No. 1 singles. Wehrman and Davidson wound up winning their division, while Gayer took second at singles.
Couple that with a championship from Max Pyle at No. 2 singles, and a title from the No. 2 doubles team of Cory Horton and Tyler Singleton and it all added up to 22 points, easily surpassing the 15 scored by Winfield. Valley Center was third with 10, with Campus (7), Newton (6) and Arkansas City (4) rounding it out.
Since all of MHS’ entries made the finals, all the ‘Pups needed to do was win one match to clinch the title. “That was easier said than done,” Gayer said. “When you looked at the matchups, we were a No. 2 seed in three of them. Horton and Singleton were the only No. 1 seed.”
But the title was clinched when Wehrman and Davidson won their match. “I thought Ben, as a freshman, did a great job of hanging in there and Nathan did what he needed to do as a senior to pull him through. That was a huge win,” Gayer said.
Wehrman and Davidson won 7-6, 6-4 over Nathan Menne and Patrick Trollman of Winfield.
Pyle defeated Valley Center’s Brett Seidl 7-6, 3-6 (10-8) in the No. 2 singles final. Seidl had entered the tournament 23-1, so it was a huge win for Pyle, who has toiled at No. 1 singles most of the year against some of the state’s top players.
Horton and Singleton were a 7-5, 4-6 (10-4) winner over Winfield’s Tanner Brock and Joe Albright in their title match. Winfield’s Adam Lawrence recorded the only non-McPherson championship with a 5-7, 6-2 (10-4) win over Mark Gayer in a spirited final. Lawrence, Doug Gayer said, figures to have a good chance to make the Final Four at state.
“That was a really neat team win,” coach Gayer said. “The guys were talking, ‘how can we do this (win a title)? Actually Nathan is the one who said, ‘I’ll play with Ben and they came through. It was just a great day.” MHS competes Saturday in the regional meet at Hutchinson. In a change this year, the top six finishers move on to state, as in the past it’s always been the top four.
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