Wellington girls tennis team secures regional runner-up trophy. (Click to enlarge)

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington girls’ tennis team is about to embark on the biggest weekend of the year with the Class 4A state tournament at the Prairie Village- Harmon Park Tennis Complex near Kansas City this weekend. 

The Crusaders will be one of a half-dozen teams who hope to secure a Class 4A State Championship in what may be one of the most competitive tournaments in years. 

Wellington qualified three of the four entrants in its regional this weekend at the Wellington Regional in Winfield. The tournament was moved to the Vaughan complex in Winfield due to it having more courts than Sellers Park. The Crusaders also secured a regional runner-up team trophy winning the tiebreaker against Buhler. The team points were: 1. Wichita Trinity 16, 2. Wellington 12, 3. Buhler 12, 4. Winfield 7, 5. Augusta 4, 6. Circle 3, 7. Pratt 3, and 8. El Dorado 0. 

Jensen Lynnes and Lyric Cornejo placed third in doubles, with Kadynce Aufdengarten and Ashlyn Gerten finishing fourth. 

Kami Reichenberger finished sixth in singles to qualify for state. 

Only freshman Logan Robinson failed to make it to state, losing to Bailey Jackson of Pratt 6-3, 6-3 in the state qualifying match. 

Four 4A schools qualified for both singles and doubles team entries, including Independence, McPherson, Bishop Miege, and Topeka Hayden. Wellington, Wichita Trinity, Clay Center, and Chapman have three entries.

Of the state-level entries, Independence and Topeka Hayden have the best seeding. But Trinity will have the No. 1 singles and doubles team coming out of the Wellington Regional. Don’t underestimate McPherson, last year’s state champion, which had the No. 1 and 2 doubles team in their regional and the No. 2 and 3 singles players. 

Wellington appears to be a long shot, but the thing about state, regional results don’t fall accordingly. Many observers believe the Wellington regional was packed and the toughest of the 4A tournaments in the state, with Wichita Trinity, Wellington, Winfield and Buhler all in one regional.

The Wellington regional was not decided until late Saturday night. The tournament began at 11 a.m. after a two-hour seeding meeting. 

Doubles 

Jensen Lynnes

Lynnes/Cornejo – third.

The duo received a No. 2 seed and started the tournament easily, defeating Haskell/Peterson of Augusta 6-1, 6-1. In the second match, they beat Norton/Richert from Winfield 6-1, 6-2 which qualified them for state.

In the next match, they met up with Trinity’s Major/Dunn, who finished third at state last year. 

“We came out flat against Trinity and couldn’t keep them off the net; they won 6-0,” said Brian Aufdengarten, Wellington’s head girls’ tennis coach. “We talked and started hitting through them instead of lobbing them. That paid off.” 

Lyric Cornejo

Lynnes/Cornejo won the second set 6-2. Then in the third set, Trinity rebounded and won 6-2. 

That set up an all-Wellington third/fourth place match, with Lynnes/Cornejo beating Aufdengarten/Gerten 6-1, 6-2.

“It is always tough playing your teammates in an actual meet, but I was proud of the girls,” Aufdengarten said. “They all hugged it out at the end of the match and shared some special moments on the court.” 

Ashlyn Gerten.

Aufdengarten/Gerten – fourth. 

The dual received the No. 4 seed. They opened with a win over Circle 6-0, 6-0. They then played a second Circle team, Soto/Thornton, winning 6-3, 6-2. 

That set up a match with Buhler’s top seed Babcock/Nickel of Buhler. 

Kadynce Aufdengarten

The Wellington duo came out ready to play and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set. Buhler battled back to win, though, 6-4. The Buhler team then gained momentum to win the second match 6-0.

They then battled Lynnes/Cornejo for third. 

Kami Reichenberger

Reichenberger – sixth. 

Reichenberger received the No. 5 seed and opened up play with a win over Barkus from El Dorado, 6-0, 6-0. Then Reichenberger lost to Laszlo, a foreign exchange student from Winfield, 6-3, 6-3. That put Reichenberger in an elimination match with a win and stay in or lose and go home. 

“Kami played a very focused match and beat a dangerous freshman from Winfield, 6-1, 6-1,” Aufdengarten said. 

That set up a match with Jackson of Pratt, who got upset by the No. 6 seed. Reichenberger lost 6-2, 6-1. 

Logan Robinson.

Robinson – did not place. 

The singles player received the No. 10 seed and pulled off a great win in her first match, beating Hamby from Buhler in a three-set match. 

She lost the first set 6-3 but came back and won the second set 6-4. That set up the super tiebreaker for the third set, and they never gave up the lead. 

“Robinson had lost to Hamby twice this season,” Aufdengarten said. “The third time is a charm, I guess. Logan played very well and showed the patience that she needed and had confidence.” 

Aufdengarten said that the match was huge. Otherwise, Wellington doesn’t finish second at regionals without that team point.

Overall

Wellington now takes the same five players to state for the second consecutive year.  

“That is pretty cool,” Aufdengarten said. “These girls have become so close-knit and it is a pretty special group.”

This is Lynnes’ third year going to state and would have been four had it not been for a COVID year.  Cornejo, Reichenberger, Gerten, and Aufdengarten have all been to state two years now.  Also, for Cornejo, this would have probably been her third year had we not had COVID precautions in place.  

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