WINFIELD – With just one championship trophy available at the Class 4A boys state tennis tournament on Saturday, players and coaches from Parsons and Winfield had to get a little creative at the post-tournament awards ceremony.
 
Both sets of Vikings showed resourcefulness during the two-day tournament to get to the top of the 4A team standings. So it was a fitting scene that both posed together with the coveted hardware, the Parsons’ boys first in 23 years and Winfield’s first in program history.
 
“That’s a great feeling,” said Winfield senior Jackson Davis, who helped his team win its share of the team title with a second consecutive doubles runner-up finish with classmate Adam Everett. “At the beginning of the year, we had no clue if we’d have a shot.”
 
It turned out multiple teams were in the hunt for what ended up as the first shared boys tennis championship in any class since the Kansas State High School Activities Association began awarding them in the sport during the 1985-86 school year.
 
Parsons, with its veteran quartet of doubles players and junior singles runner-up Wyatt Shultz, and Winfield, with the Jackson-Everett combo and a pair of singles underclassmen, each scored 29 points. Buhler, which won its first boys tennis title in 4A a year ago, finished third with 28 and Hesston took fourth with 26 after moving up from Class 3-2-1A this season.
 

Kansas City Christian and Sacred Heart shared the Class 3-2-1A girls title in 2020, the only time prior to Saturday that KSHSAA awarded team co-champions in tennis. The unprecedented boys occurrence wasn’t certain until the tournament’s final point was played in the doubles championship match on Saturday.

Because Parsons and Winfield had the same number of medal-earning entries (3) and all their qualifiers advanced to the second day of the tournament, a tie was declared.
 
For Parsons, which got a seventh-place finish from senior Conner Barcus and junior Cole Kennett, and an eighth-place finish from seniors Davion Holman and Mason Morris in doubles, the victory offset some of the disappointment of not having senior singles player Tanner Nolting in the lineup. The three-time state qualifier, who finished sixth in 4A year ago, withdrew from the Vikings’ home regional during his second-round match with a medical issue.
 
“Having four seniors, we’ve been planning on doing this since they were freshmen,” Parsons coach Jane Posch said. “When Tanner went down and wasn’t able to play, we didn’t think it would be a possibility for us to win it. Things had to fall into place.”
 
Posch has been to enough state tournaments to learn a few lessons. In last year’s tournament, the Vikings struggled on the final day and settled for third after finishing second in 2023.
 
Parsons emphasized the importance of State Saturday all spring. This year, each of the Vikings’ entries opened Day 2 with a victory.
 

 “We’ve been practicing since last year on how to show up on Day 2,” Posch said. “We made our schedule tougher. We practiced playing two days in a row and getting up in the morning and playing that second day. Everybody knew what their job was. We didn’t hardly have to talk about it.”
 
With Shultz reaching the singles final for the third straight year – where he lost to Buhler’s three-time champion Davian Spies 6-2, 6-0 – Parsons had the anchor for its team score with 14 points. Winfield matched it in the doubles final, where Davis and Everett took Hesston’s top-seeded Asher Deutschendorf and Braiden Liechty to three sets before the Swathers prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2).
 
A Winfield victory in front of a boisterous home crowd would have secured an outright team championship. Instead, Davis and Everett wrapped up a partnership that began in middle school with the consolation of a co-team title and lasting memories.
 
“It was some kind of experience,” said Davis, a Southwestern College football signee who placed eighth, third, second and second in four state appearances with Everett. “That was something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. The nerves were flowing, for sure.”
 

Winfield’s junior singles tandem of Joshua Moore and Copeland Quiett played to their tournament seeds, finishing sixth and ninth respectively. Moore ended his season 25-13 while Quiett, who won his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals before falling to eventual champion Spies, finished 19-21.
 
“I knew that we had a very, very strong team coming into the season,” Winfield coach Janie Grow said. “Right down to the JV, we had a team of 30 kids and more in the middle school that have a love of the sport. We were hoping to qualify both of our doubles, but we felt that we had enough that we could be successful.
 
“A lot of our tournaments were with 5A and 6A teams, and that really helped us.”
 
Buhler put up a strong title defense, getting Spies’ third singles title in four seasons and a second consecutive third-place doubles finish from senior Von Woleslagel and junior Reuben Harder. Hesston, which tied for fourth last year in 3-2-1A, matched that finish in 4A on Saturday with the Deutschendorf-Liechty title and a fifth-place singles finish from sophomore Janmejay Patwardhan.
 

 Parsons was given the one available championship trophy to take home, which the Vikings shared with fans who were in the school parking lot to greet them Saturday evening. Winfield’s trophy, the reward for a successful weekend on its home courts, will be coming soon.
 
The bittersweet part for Grow was watching Davis and Everett play their final matches together. The duo finished their careers with a 104-38 record.
 
“They play like they’re brothers,” Grow said. “They’ve always been so supportive of one another and had each other’s back. They know what they need to do when they get down.
 
“It was so stressful watching that title match. We’re very superstitious, and the boys hate that about us. But it was fun and you wanted it to end a certain way, and when it ends the way it did, it’s like you want one more. We were hoping they could turn it around, but we’re still just so proud of them.”
 
 
CLASS 4A STATE TENNIS
 
At Vaughan Tennis Center, Winfield
 
TEAM SCORES
 
Parsons 29, Winfield 29, Buhler 28, Hesston 26, Independence 21, McPherson 17, Bishop Miege 13, Clay Center 12, Hayden 12, Chanute 9, Fort Scott 9, El Dorado 8, Wellington 7, Scott City 3, Circle 2, Concordia 1, Iola 1.
 
SINGLES
 
Championship – Davian Spies, Buhler def. Wyatt Shultz, Parsons, 6-2, 6-0. Third place – Luca Marrello, Bishop Miege def. Keith Sanders, Independence, 6-3, 6-3. Fifth place – Janmejay Patwardhan, Hesston def. Joshua Moore, Winfield, 8-5. Seventh place – Jaxen DeMott, Fort Scott def. Maverick Peterson, Wellington, 8-3. Ninth place – Copeland Quiett, Winfield def. Eli Pfizenmaier, Clay Center, 8-4. 11^th place – Reece Knight, El Dorado def. Cooper Bohme, McPherson, 8-5.
 
DOUBLES
 
Championship – Asher Deutschendorf/Braiden Liechty, Hesston def. Adam Everett/Jackson Davis, Winfield, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2). Third place – Von Woleslagel/Reuben Harder, Buhler def. Chase Blaser/Evan George, Hayden, 6-2, 6-4. Fifth place – Bryson Archer/Alex Berger, McPherson def. Ethan Burnett/Ayden Cummings, Chanute, 9-7. Seventh place – Cole Bennett/Conner Barcus, Parsons def. Davion Holman/Mason Morris, Parsons, 8-0. Ninth place – Matthew McLenon/Zach Scott, Independence def. Anthony Davies/John Alton, Clay Center, 8-5. 11^th place – Theron Mays/Lane Eck, El Dorado def. Brody Strine/Brody Stoecklein, Scott City, 8-2.