Addington wins two at State

WINFIELD -- Fort Scott High School senior Gage Addington was 2-2 at the Class 4A State Tennis Tournament this weekend, finishing his senior season with a record of 19-10.

Addington opened tournament play with a 6-1, 6-2 win over sophomore Renton Williams of Andover Central on Friday. Fort Scott head coach said that Addington was able to get into rhythm and force Williams to make several errors.

Addington's next match came against No. 3 seed Marcel Rimrodt of Concordia, who is a junior exchange student from Germany. Rimrodt went on to win 6-3, 6-0.

"Gage had trouble getting anything going against this player," Barr said. "Rimrodt was able to place the ball and keep Gage deep in the court and didn't ever really allow Gage many opportunities to attack or force errors."

The loss dropped Addington to the back side of the bracket, where he would have to win two matches to advance to Saturday's play and have a chance to earn a medal. His first match on that side was against Caleb Mathes of Labette County. Addington came away with a 9-5 win. Mathes was eliminated with the loss.

"He was able to control many of the rallies and force Mathes into some errors by moving him and keeping a lot of pressure on him throughout the match," Barr said.

Addington then faced Paul Juesten of Parsons. The match was suspended due to rain and finished on Saturday morning. Juesten was ahead 6-5 when play was called and won the final three of the final four games on Saturday morning to win the set 9-6.

"This was a hotly contested match with Gage building a small lead early," Barr said. "Then, following a somewhat controversial line situation, Gage lost some of his rhythm and Juesten made a comeback as a light rain began. When play resumed on Saturday, Gage was unable to ever really get going.

"I couldn't be more proud of the way Gage played and represented Fort Scott in the State Tournament. He played hard, competed well in each of his matches, and did so with class and good sportsmanship. He has had a great high-school career and has a great deal to be proud of with what he has accomplished in the last four years. He is a great young man and has been a real asset to our program."

Juesten went on to finish in 10th placee following a 9-3 loss to Abilene's Gabe Johnson in the ninth place match. Juesten was the only player from a Southeast Kansas League school to earn a medal in singles. Medals went to the top 12 players in singles and top 12 teams in doubles.

Topeka Hayden, which finished second last season, won the team title with 39 points as it had both singles finalists and the 11th-place team in doubles. McPherson, third last season, took second with 34 points as it had the doubles champion and fourth-place finisher and the 12th-place finisher in doubles.

Independence took third place with 29 points, two ahead of Andover Central. The Bulldogs had the doubles runner-up and fifth-place teams. Parsons tied with Wichita Trinity for seventh place, Fort Scott tied for 16th with Colby and Wellington and Labette County tied for 19th with Columbus and Parsons. Last year's Class 4A team champion, Wichita Collegiate, finished second to Kansas City Christian in Class 3-2-1A at Goddard.

Defending 4A singles champion Tommy Hunter, a sophomore, defeated older brother Blake, a senior, in the singles final, 6-2, 7-5, to end the season with a 34-2 record. Blake Hunter (27-5) won a State medal in each of his four seasons, finishing third in 2013 and 2011 and fourth in 2012. Carter Tappan, a freshman from Wichita Trinity, won third place over Winfield senior Sam Camp, 6-0, 6-1. Camp won his second State medal as he was half of a doubles team which finished fourth last season.

Last year's third-place finishers in doubles, senior brothers Peter Horton and Ryan Horton of McPherson, claimed the doubles title with a 6-1, 6-0 sweep of Independence brothers Josh and Sam Hilger in the finals. The Hortons finished the season 33-6 while the Hilgers were 18-4. Cameron Davis, a senior, and Jacob Thompson, a junior, of Andover Central beat senior Dylan Stos and junior Luke Williams of McPherson for third place, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.

Lane Schicke and Pat Hardy of Independence took fifth place with a 9-5 win over Luke Powell and John Schurtz of Bishop Miege. Ross Benavides and Bobby Ho of Parsons finished seventh with a 9-7 win over Liam Kahmayer and Christian Kurz of Pratt.