Given its rich tennis history, throwing around a superlative when it comes to Wichita Collegiate is making quite a statement.
 
So when the buzz began that this year’s edition of the Spartans might be the best ever in program history, well, maybe a few eyebrows might have bene raised.
 
The best ever? For a Collegiate program that came into this year’s Class 3-2-1A state tournament at Kossover Tennis Center as the owner of a somewhat mind-boggling 27 state championships in the 40 years KSHSAA has held a state tournament?
 
Let’s just say, that’s saying something.
 
Then again, the way the Spartans performed at this year’s state tournament, it’s kind of hard to argue that they don’t belong at the top of the conversation around which Collegiate team is the best of all time.
 
“I’ve done this for 25 years and I think it’s the deepest team I’ve ever had and I’ve had a number of teams and I’ve seen a lot of Dave’s teams and this is about as deep as it goes,” second-year Collegiate coach Simon Norman said, referring to former Spartan coach and KSHSAA Hall of Famer Dave Hawley, who guided Collegiate to its first 26 state championships. “I feel privileged to have these guys.
 
“It’s just a really good bunch of guys. They practice hard and when they get on the court, they know how to get the job done and play to their ability and that’s what they did this weekend.”
 

 
Collegiate got the job done in about as impressive of fashion as any coach could ask for. The Spartans finished 1-2 in singles with junior Charlie Gentile outlasting freshman Amir Khicha for his first state title and then went 1-3 in doubles with the brother tandem of Carter and Maddox Drumright capping an undefeated season and second straight state championship with a three-set win over Cair Paravel’s Eric Buchenau and Drew Fay.
 
Collegiate finished with a whopping 58 points, 34 ahead of runner-up Conway Springs, which was led by a fourth-place finish from the doubles team of Layne Whitney and Isaac Winter. Wichita Classical was third with 21 points, led by third-place singles finisher Isaac Yourdon.
 
As good as this year’s edition of Collegiate was, they may not hold the mantle as best in program history for very long. Of the group, which included the third-place doubles team of William Farha and Vihaan Ganganala, only one is a senior – Carter Drumright.
 
The rest will be back next year and the Spartans will tap into its depth to fill Drumright’s spot as they look to possibly top this year’s stellar showing.
 
“It’s a shame to lose Carter because he’s done so well for us,” Norman said. “He did two years playing singles when he didn’t even like to play singles. Then to win with his brother twice, it was fantastic.
 
“But losing just one senior, yeah, we’ll be back for more.”
 

 
DRUMRIGHTS DELIVER ON PREDICTION, FINISH OFF TWO-YEAR RUN IN PERFECT FASHION
 
Immediately after winning the Class 3-2-1A state doubles championship a year ago with younger brother Maddox, Carter Drumright already had an eye and thoughts about the 2025 season. So much so, he made a fairly bold prediction.
 
“I said, ‘Everyone’s graduating. I think we will go undefeated,’” Drumright recalled.
 
Saying it is one thing. Doing it is another.
 
And though he never took back his words, Drumright also never backed down from that belief. Even if he wasn’t 100% sure it would play out that way.
 
“I thought there was a chance,” he said. “But just with how sports works, it’s so unlikely. That last match had me a little worried, but we took care of business this season.”
 
Indeed, the brothers did. Pushed harder than they had been all season in Saturday’s state championship match by Cair Paravel’s Eric Buchenau and Drew Fay, the Drumrights delivered on Carter’s prediction and capped off a 25-0 season with a 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-0 victory.
 
“I kind of forgot about that,” Maddox said about Carter’s undefeated prediction. “But it kept happening and we just kept winning and then it became a pretty real possibility.”
 

 
When he made his prediction, Carter wasn’t exactly going out on a precarious limb. Playing doubles together for the first time last year when Maddox came in as a freshman to pull Carter away from singles where he’d posted third and fifth-place state finishes, they put together a 27-2 record.
 
They finished the year on a 22-match winning streak and were dominant in capturing their first state title, winning their semifinal match 6-2, 6-0 and the title match against Classical’s Isaac Yourdon and Charlie Graham, 6-1, 6-1.
 
With Graham graduating and Yourdon moving to singles, 2024 third-place finishers Asher Deutschendorf and Braiden Liechty of Hesston moving up to 4A and 2024 fourth-place finishers Blake Spicer and Titus Wassom of Marysville also graduating, the Drumrights’ top competition from a year ago was gone.
 
The roll they finished the 2024 season on carried right over to the 2025 season as the Drumrights breezed through the regular season with little resistance. Their toughest matches ahead of regionals were 8-4 decisions over Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s John Korfhage and Trey Lacy, who finishes as state runners-up in Class 5A on Saturday, and Andover’s Pierce Anderson and John Rather, who were sixth in 5A.
 
“I felt like we grew a lot,” Maddox said of their improvement over a year ago. “Now if something happens we bounce back and build each other up, don’t break each other down. We’re never negative and positive always.”
 

 
“I felt we did grow a ton,” Carter said. “The more time we spent with each other and with this being my last season, we had to make it special. The positivity, we just keep it going and our energy on the court is unmatched.”
 
Included in their 17-0 regular season was an 8-2 win over the Cair Paravel duo the Drumrights saw in the state finals.
 
Fay and Buchenau had denied an all-Collegiate doubles finals match by knocking off second-seeded Spartan freshmen William Farha and Vihaan Ganganala 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals – a match that finished well after the Drumrights had polished off Conway Springs’ Layne Whitney and Isaac Winter 6-0, 6-3. Even though there was adequate rest between the semifinals and finals, it looked early on as if the Lions had exerted much of their energy in getting to the finals.
 
The Drumrights jumped out to a 5-0 lead before Fay and Buchenau finally got something going, winning two straight games before the Drumrights finished off the set with a 6-2 victory. The second set began in similar fashion with the Spartans getting out to a 4-1 lead.
 
This time, however, when Fay and Buchenau found their groove, they were able to counterpunch in a big way. The Lions won three straight games to tie the set at 4-4 and then answered when the Drumrights went up 5-4 and 6-5 to force a tiebreaker.
 
Tied 3-3 in the tiebreaker, Fay and Buchenau won three straight points to take control and held on for the 7-5 decision to win the second set 7-6.
 
“We started off slow and we were just slow getting into it,” Fay said. “We got in a rhythm the second set, I don’t really know why, but we got in a rhythm and we kept rolling with it.”
 

 
Despite dropping their first set of the season, Carter said the brothers’ confidence wasn’t shaken.
 
“We’ve never been down like that all season,” he said. “I just knew that we’d figure it out. We’re just gritty. We get to all the balls the people don’t expect. You hear people cheering when a ball’s hit and then we get to it and then they have to stop cheering. I just knew at some point they’d stop hitting winners and their shots would run out.
 
“They’re a great team and they played out of their minds. But you just gotta bounce back and be a goldfish.”
 
A goldfish?
 
“They don’t have that much memory so they just let it all go,” Maddox said. “Coach Gehrer (Joe, Wichita Collegiate’s baseball coach) says it all the time because you just have to let things go.”
 
Not only did they shake off the set loss, they buried it with emphasis. The third set was all Drumrights as they left no doubt with the 6-0 victory to wrap up their second straight state title.
 
“It’s just amazing,” Maddox said. “Winning it last year with him and then getting the regional win (this year) on his birthday, that was my birthday present to him. Now we’ve won state. This was for both of us. We’ve worked hard for it.”
 

 
With Carter graduating – the lone senior on this year’s state championship team – Maddox will be looking for a new partner next year to bridge the gap until younger brother, Hudson, joins the team in 2027. It very well could be Charlie Gentile, who captured the singles championship this year, but has been chomping at the bit to play doubles.
 
“I actually love doubles,” Gentile said. “I got to play with Amir (Khicha) at league this year and we tore it up. One of the best times I’ve had on a tennis court. I prefer doubles so I’m pretty excited to maybe make that move.”
 

 
Despite the runner-up finish, Fay said he and Buchenau were extremely pleased with their state performance. Fay placed fourth at state in singles last year before teaming up with Buchenau, a foreign exchange student from Germany, this season.
 
The duo finished the season 29-2 with both losses coming to the Drumrights. And after getting handled in the first meeting, pushing the Spartans to the limit in the finals sat well with them.
 
“We didn’t finish quite how we wanted, but I’m proud of how we played,” Fay said. “We played hard and I don’t have any regrets. Each point was fun, even if we lost it. They were all good points.
 
“it sucks more right now that it was so close, but overall I’m definitely glad we made it close.”
 

 
MY TURN AT LAST: GENTILE AVANGES REGIONAL LOSS TO TEAMMATE FOR FIRST SINGLES CROWN
 
“I’ve been waiting three years for this!”
 
Those were the first words out of Charlie Gentile’s mouth when approached for an interview and while the comment was certainly a reaction to that request, it had significantly more meaning to it.
 
At last, Gentile captured the Class 3-2-1A state singles championship he felt was within reach when he first arrived as a freshman in 2023. Gentile got the long-awaited title with a hard-fought 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win over teammate Amir Khicha.
 
“Honestly at 4-1 in the third set, I had goosebumps,” Gentile said. “I was like, ‘Don’t blow this. Don’t blow this. Don’t blow this.’ When it happened, it was an insane rush of dopamine and excitement and something I hadn’t felt on the tennis court before.”
 
But it was a feeling he felt like he should have already experienced. A state semifinalist each of his first two seasons, Gentile settled for third-place state finishes each of those seasons and that left a rather unsatisfactory taste in his mouth.
 
“Obviously my freshman year, Caleb was too much for me,” Gentile said, referring to Kansas City Christian’s Caleb Bartels who was in the midst of a three-year reign in Class 3-2-1A singles that the Panther finished off last year with an undefeated season. “With him being two years older than me, I just couldn’t hang with him.
 
“Then last year against Peyton Ryan (of Central Plains) in the semifinals I got sick and couldn’t finish and play Caleb. I think I had a decent shot with Caleb with how my game was. Unfortunately that didn’t pan out.”
 

 
With both Bartels and Ryan having graduated, Gentile entered this year as arguably the overwhelming favorite for the 3-2-1A singles title, especially with last year’s fourth-place finisher, Drew Fay of Cair Paravel, moving to doubles.
 
But an influx of freshmen talent altered the landscape a bit and Gentile got a first-hand look daily at the best of them in Khicha. The son of former Collegiate state champion Sanjay Khicha (1988 singles, 1991 doubles), Khicha was part of a ultra-talented freshman class for the Spartans and the one that stuck as Gentile’s top rival in singles.
 
“He honestly pushed me to be the best I could be, especially in practice,” Gentile said of Khicha. “Amir, he’s such a hard worker and really wants it. Every time in practice, he’s always focused, always working hard and I respect him for that. It pushed me to be better in practice and try to get to his level.”
 
Facing Khicha in practice is entirely different than facing him in a tournament, however. The two did meet twice during the season with Gentile taking an 8-2 win early in the season – Khicha’s only loss prior to state -- and Khicha pulling out a three-set win in last week’s regional finals.
 
That loss certainly provided Gentile with all the motivation he needed for the state meet. And also the knowledge he needed to counter Khicha’s strengths.
 
“We’re pretty even,” Gentile said. “I learned his pattern recognition and how I should play. He loves that inside-out forehand and so I was just really whenever I had to hit a short ball, which I don’t want to do, but whenever I got in that situation I was able to sit in that corner and rally with him. I could recover and get back in the point.
 
“It’s learning how he plays in a match because in practice you don’t see it. He’s working on his game and specific things. But in a match, he’s just playing.”
 
Both players easily earned the rubber match showdown with 6-0, 6-0 semifinal wins – Khicha beating Classical’s Isaac Yourdon and Gentile getting a bit of Central Plains revenge in beating Camden Stiles.
 
In their regional final clash, it was Khicha getting out to a fast start, taking a 6-2 win in the opening set. In the state finals, the script was flipped and Gentile won the first three games and four of the first five on his way to a 6-2 set victory.
 
Even as dominant as he was in the opening set, Gentile knew the match was far from over.
 
“I honestly told my coaches, ‘This is going to go three,’” he said. “I knew Amir is such a fighter and he was going to come out and play the best he could possibly could and wasn’t going to go down.”
 
Gentile was dead-on with his assessment of the match. Sure enough, Khicha roared back in a big way, winning the first three games of the second set on his way to a 6-3 victory in the set to force a third set for the title.
 
“The first set he was playing really well, but I knew if I could stay in it in the second set I could get it,” Khicha said. “The third set, it was pretty even but then I felt like I started losing focus and started missing too much. He just played a really good set in the third set, making a lot of balls and putting a lot of pressure on my backhand that I couldn’t reciprocate.”
 

 
Just as their first meeting saw similar momentum swings, so did their finals rematch. After Khicha controlled the second set, Gentile snatched the momentum back in the third, getting out to a 3-0 lead. After Khicha got a game win, Gentile finished his teammate off for the 6-1 victory, capping a 15-3 season overall.
 
“He played a great second set and hit some balls I just couldn’t handle,” Gentile said. “In the third set, I was just said I was going to play my game. I’m two years older than him, so use that. I hit the big shots at the right time and it worked out for me.
 
“I think I was on top of my game. It was the best I’ve played all year. He’s a mental warrior and I knew he wouldn’t go down. Even at 4-1 in that final set I knew it wasn’t over. He was still ripping and it wasn’t over.”
 
Khicha finished with a 20-2 record, both losses coming to Gentile.
 
“I’m definitely happy that it was a teammate that beat me, but I’m still a bit disappointed,” Khicha said. “It fuels me for next year.”
 

 
“When you have two guys on that level, it’s just on the day and who steps up and plays,” Norman said. “Charlie stepped up today and Amir stepped up and played great last week. That’s probably how it goes. It’s just on the day and who’s going to step up that day.”
 
As much as it pained Gentile to have to beat his teammate for the title, the past state shortcomings and sense of accomplishment of getting his long-awaited state title made the thrill of winning even greater.
 
“Playing Amir, who’s such a great player, I felt like I really earned it,” said Gentile, whose only other losses came to Class 5A singles champion Evan Goates of Maize South and Class 6A sixth-place finisher Hayden Herrera of Maize. “I always felt like state is such a big tournament, I want to earn it. Beat a great player like Amir is.
 
“I told his mom afterwards, ‘It’s just a shame we both couldn’t’ win.’ He honestly deserved it too and he’ll be back next year and I smell three state singles titles in the future for him.”
 
CLASS 3-2-1A STATE TENNIS
 
At Kossover Tennis Center, Topeka
 
TEAM SCORES
 
Wichita Collegiate 58, Conway Springs 24, Wichita Classical 21, Cair Paravel 19, Central Plains 19, Sterling 17, Trinity Academy 15, Hoisington 14, Smoky Valley 14, Ellinwood 6, Meade 4, Phillipsburg 4, KC Christian 3, Bishop Seabury 2, Lyons 2, Neodesha 2, Haven 1, Marysville 1, Perry-Lecompton 1, Sacred Heart 1, WaKeeney 1.
 
SINGLES
 
Championship – Charlie Gentile, Wichita Collegiate def. Amir Khicha, Wichita Collegiate, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Third place – Isaac Yourdon, Wichita Classical def. Camden Stiles, Central Plains, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Fifth place – Jace Darnauer, Sterling def. Noah Doom, Wichita Classical, 8-2. Seventh place – Levi Mies, Conway Springs def. Jasper Pawlowski, Hoisington, 8-2. Ninth place – Alex Hobson, Trinity Academy def. Cole Fay, Cair Paravel, 8-1. 11th place – Samuel Lynn, Meade def. Brody Rossman, Hoisington, 8-6.
 
DOUBLES
 
Championship – Carter Drumright/Maddox Drumright, Wichita Collegiate def. Eric Buchenau/Drew Fay, Cair Paravel, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-0. Third place – William Farha/Vihaan Ganganala, Wichita Collegiate def. Layne Whitney/Isaac Winter, Conway Springs, 6-1, 6-3. Fifth place – Gabriel Baker/Ezekiel Baker, Smoky Valley def. Preston Sebits/Blane Farley, Trinity Academy, 9-8 (10-8). Seventh place – Paxton Dody/Peyton Dody, Central Plains def. Ben Bierstedt/Zac Wohler, Sterling, 8-6. Ninth place – Ty Hammeke/Ethan Scholchtermeier, Ellinwood def. Joseph Beck/Eli Benge, Conway Springs, 8-5. 11th place – Jack Bieker/Pierce Keller, Smoky Valley def. Leyton Mooney/Gabriel Pawlowski, Hoisington, 8-6.