Peyton Adams

Kelsey Whaley

Sumner Newscow report

 — The Crusader girls tennis team ended its season this past weekend in Topeka with the Class 4A State tournament at Kossover Stadium in Topeka.

Wellington doubles partners Kelsey Whaley and Peyton Adams made their second trip to the state tournament and didn’t have the outcome they were hoping for going 1-2 on Saturday.

In their opening match they lost to the Matthews sisters from Independence 6-1, 6-0.  

“We just couldn’t shake our nerves the whole match, and the other pair had a match before they got to us because we got a bye,” said Brian Aufdengarten, Wellington head girls tennis coach. “You want those byes but sometimes having a warmup match is good because you sit for another two to three hours.”

The Wellington pair bounced back and beat Chapman 9-3, then in another elimination match the nerves showed up again after falling behind to Parsons.

“After we tied it up at 2-2 I thought that we would be ok, but we just played nervous the whole matching knowing that we are eliminated if we lost,” Aufdengarten said.

Parsons went on to win the match 9-5.

Kelsey Whaley will graduate this year and ends a very good career with 95 career wins that moves her into sixth place on the all time win list, Aufdengarten said. The Wellington pair finished 24-11 this year.

“I know it is not what we wanted but to even make state is a great accomplishment and these two kept our streak alive now for 10 straight years of having Wellington represented at the state tournament,” Aufdengarten said.

Wellington finished 17th as a team.