Maverick Peterson finishes ninth at the Class 4A State Tournament in Topeka. 

Sumner Newscow report — Wellington Senior Maverick Peterson finished ninth in singles at the Class 4A State Tennis Tournament in Topeka, held this Friday and Saturday.

Wellington freshman Gannon Worley also came home with a couple of victories but did not place in 4A singles.

Overall, Wellington finished with 15 points, good enough for ninth place at the 4A tournament. Hesston won the state championship with 43 points, with McPherson finishing a distant second with 31. Independence was third at 29. Parsons, Buhler, Winfield, El Dorado and Iola all finished ahead of Wellington (see results here).

As for Peterson, he got off to a good start as the seventh seed after receiving the first-round bye. He beat Quiett of Winfield in one of the tournament’s best matches of the day. After losing the first set 3-6, he came back to win the second 6-3 and then went into a marathon tie-breaker match, eventually winning 15-13.

That set him up against the eventual state runner-up Patwardhan of Hesston. That was a good match as well, with Peterson going into yet another tiebreaker. He would eventually lose 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

That put him on the backside, where he would lose to Bohme of McPherson 8-6. He ended up vying for ninth place, winning his two final victories of his career, an 8-3 win over Davis of Buhler, and then a 9-3 victory over Cooley of Independence.

Gannon Woley, a freshman, finished the state tournament going 1-2.

Worley opened the 4A tournament with a loss to Knight of El Dorado 6-2, 6-2. That put him on the backside, where he would beat Wahlmeier of Hayden 8-5. He would then lose to White of Hesston 8-5 to end his freshman season.

The tennis team should be pretty good next year as it is returning Worley and both doubles team with an influx of talent coming from the middle school.