Those going to state for Wellington were: Logan Robinson, Cruz Cornejo, Addi and Gracie Thomson. (Courtesy photo by Timothy Baca)

Sumner Newscow report — The Wellington girls tennis team qualified both of its doubles team for the Class 4A state tournament to be played at Prairie-Harmon Park Tennis Complex at Prairie Village, a suburb of Kansas City this Friday and Saturday.

Wellington’s Cruz Cornejo and Logan Robinson placed second at the Independence Regional last weekend. The duo was to play for the Regional Championship but had to medically default because Robinson had tweaked her ankle in the first set of a 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3 semifinal victory over Abby Gorman/Bryleigh Hymer of Fort Scott. The default was a precautionary measure to avoid further injury ahead of the state tournament.

The other doubles team, Addi and Gracie Thomson, placed fifth with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Jacqueline Smoot/Lea Burnett of Chanute. Both teams will head to state as No. 2 and No. 5 seeds.

Wellington did not get any singles players qualified for state. Kenzie Schnelle was eliminated one match short of qualifying for the top six, which is the cutoff for a player. Sierra Goodrum was eliminated in the second round. The full results can be found here.

Overall, Wellington placed third as a team. Independence won the event with 14 points, edging out Winfield, which had 13. Wellington scored 10 points, placing over Chanute 9, Parsons 5, Fort Scott 5, Labette County 2, Coffeyville 0, and Iola 0.

Logan Robinson and Cruz Cornejo in an earlier tournament in Wellington.

Cornejo-Robinson

Cornejo-Robinson qualified for state for the third consecutive year and will go into Kansas City with a 22-2 record.

After receiving a bye, the duo knocked out Lizzie Cook/Danica Davis of Coffeyville 6-0, 6-0. In the third round, they defeated Tenlee Kennett/Heidi Shultz of Parsons 6-1, 6-2.

That set them up in a very competitive semifinal match against Abbie Gorman/Bryleigh Hymer of Fort Scott. Cornejo/Robinson would win 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3. The duo lost the first set in a tiebreaker, then won the next two sets against a Fort Scott duo that had lost only once all season.

That set up the championship match with Allie Denney/Sadie York of Independence. Aufdengarten said about the decision to not have the pair play:

“We really didn’t want to risk anything in a possible grueling match with Independence in the finals, the state meet is the most important and we just wanted to be precautionary.  She’s never really had a sprained ankle and wasn’t even use to the tape job she got during the previous match.  She’ll be good to go at state this next weekend.”

Addi and Gracie Thomson in the first tournament of the season in Wellington.

Thomson twins 

Addi and Gracie received a first-round bye and would defeat Ava Lewis/Annabelle Wood of Winfield 6-2, 6-2.

The Thomsons then lost to Allie Denney/Sadie York of Independence, 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 in the third round. That threw them into the consolation bracket, where they needed one victory to qualify for state.

They battled Kanika Marcoux/Ashtyn Cummings of Chanute and would win 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

For the fifth-place match, the Thomsons would beat another Chanute team, Jacqueline Smoot/Leah Burnett, and finished 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to secure the win. This mark’s Addi’s second straight year, this time with her sister.