by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington boys tennis team failed to qualify anyone in the Class 4A Regional Saturday and Sunday in Pratt. As a result the Crusader season has ended. In other news, the Wellington boys baseball team played a home triangular on Saturday…

WHS tennis at Pratt Regional —

An inexperienced Wellington High School tennis team failed to qualify anyone to the Class 4A state tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

The regional started Friday morning at 10 a.m. and went until 3 p.m. After a rainy Saturday kept the tournament from resuming, play began again on Sunday at 10 a.m.

Singles player Avery Chaney was eliminated in Round 1 by Michael Schifrel of Colby 6-0, 6-0 and the doubles team of Anthony Glazer/Chaz Crittenden were also eliminated in Round 1 by Bhakta/Foreman of Pratt.

“Anthony and Chaz stepped out on the court mentally ready to play and stayed focused during a close first set, winning 6-4,” said Wellington head tennis coach Allen Keller. “However, they suddenly lost their ability to stay focused and were never a threat to win after that, quickly dropping the second set 6-1 and losing the super tiebreaker 10-2.”

Keller said this was a match Glazer and Crittenden easily could have won if they would have continued to concentrate and not let their thoughts wander.

Singles player Tyler Pettegrew won his first round match against Steven Seltman of Larned 6-0, 6-4 but lost his second round match against No. 2 seeded Travis Osland of Wichita Collegiate 6-0, 6-0.

“Tyler played relaxed the entire match and got some great experience playing one of the best players in 4A,” Keller said.

Pettegrew went to the consolation bracket still with a chance to qualify for state if he could at least manage a sixth place finish.  That would require him to win his first match on Sunday morning against Schifrel of Colby.

Pettegrew quickly went up 5-0 in the first set.

“He then had premature thoughts of going to the state tournament creeping into his head,” Keller said. “He then dropped the next seven games in a row and managed to lose the first set 7-5.

To his credit, he recovered and won the second set 6-3 to force a third and final set, Keller said.

“A failure to control his nerves once against took over and Tyler ended up losing the third set and the match 3-6, ending all chances of playing in the state tournament,” Keller said.

The doubles team of Jon Ryberg and Dutch Brownlee had a similar fate as they won their initial match against Reynoso/Wolff of Augusta 6-1, 6-0 before losing their second round match to Moxley/Short of Wichita Collegiate 6-0, 6-0.

On Sunday morning they played Kriwiel/Zimmerman of Wichita Trinity.

Ryberg/Brownlee controlled play during the first set, stayed relaxed and won 6-3.  They lost the second set 6-3 but regained their composure and got up to a nice 5-1 lead, Keller said.

“But inexperience took over and unable to keep their focus, managed to lose the next five games in a row to lose the set and the match 7-5,” Keller said. “Our players are learning that there is no substitute for experience in the learning process.  We have to learn to give ourselves the ability to perform in tough situations, and the only way to do that is to be in tough situations.”

Keller continued:

“The young men who played Sunday and had a chance to qualify for state are all young, inexperienced sophomores,” Keller said. “I know they are very disappointed with the outcomes and having to let go of a goal that was in their hands is very hard to do.  But the more they play and the more tough situations they get into, the better prepared they’ll be to perform under pressure in the next tough situation they get into.”

Keller said, right now the Wellington High School players don’t even realize they have the ability to control what they think about.

“But we all do, and we talked about that after the tournament,” Keller said. “So, during now and next season, we are going to work a great deal on controlling our thoughts, keeping the important thoughts and our mind, learning to deal with all the distractions and staying focused.

“Only then can they let their body take over and perform the way they’ve trained it to.”

Keller said in two short months, the WHS tennis guys are light years ahead of where they started, and if they hang in there with him, 2014 will be a much better year.

“And we will be sending players to the state tournament once again,” Keller said. “I really appreciate the opportunity to have coached such a great group of talented players.”

•••••

Wellington boys baseball:

The Wellington boys baseball team had no luck in the triangular held during a cold day at Sellers Park.

The Wellington boys lost to Kansas City Turner 7-1. In triangular finale, Wellington fell to Arkansas City in an ugly game 14-0.

The Crusaders are now 3-11 overall.

Ark City would beat Kansas City Turner 6-2 in the other game to win the Wellington triangular.

In the first game, Wellington’s stats were not that much different than Turner’s, except for the final score.

Kansas City Turner 7 Wellington 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7     R   H   E

KCT        3 0 0 4 0 0 0     7    6   2

WHS       0 0 0 0 1 0 0     1    7   3

W – Cowan      L – Anderson

Kansas City 6 Arkansas City 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7      R   H   E

KCT         0 1 0 0 0 1 0      2    3   4

ACHS.     1 0 3 1 1 0 x      6    6   1

W – Cox      L – Moran

Arkansas City 14 Wellington 0

1 2 3 4 5      R    H    E

ACHS       2 2 9 1 0      14   10   1

WHS         0 0 0 0 0       0     2   6

W – Sutherland      L – Nance

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