“Let’s go ‘Hat,” the boys chant during every match to boost up their momentum and to support their team mates during their matches. The boys’ ability to keep their positive energy throughout them all landed them as third in the region. The boys brought back three medals home on Saturday and finished tied for third with Washburn Rural at the Class 6A state tennis meet.

Junior Bryce Easton placed fifth making him the highest finish in his singles bracket. Seniors Kirkland Lambert and Collin Queal took sixth in their doubles bracket while seniors Matt and Ben Turnley took 11th to support the team’s score. The team was tied for a score of 26 with Washburn who took home the trophy.

With a first-round bye, Easton took on five straight wins after losing to Blue Valley West’s Anil Chakka, 6-0, 7-5. The junior came back with force beating Olathe East’s Carson Fitzgerald, 9-5, before beating Olathe North West’s Cutter sander who beat him earlier in this season, 9-7.

“He beat me once before once in a home meet here and once in a Kansas City tournament,” Easton said.

Easton continued his winning streak beating Shawnee Mission East’s Billy Louiselle, 9-8, and Rural’s Nathan Osburn, 9-6. With his last match, Easton avenged his lost from earlier that day by beating Chakka, 9-6. Easton finished the weekend as fifth in his bracket with a 5-1 record, making him the star of the day.

“The hero of the day was Bryce Easton, who beat a kid who had beaten him twice this year, one real badly,” coach Robert Kelly said to the Manhattan Mercury. “And he beat another kid he lost to in an earlier tournament. It was real good.”

In doubles, Queal and Lambert finish sixth with a 3-2 record after narrowingly missing a spot in the semifinals.

The two started with a first-round bye and defeated Blue Valley North West’s Alex Downing and Alex Batrouny, 6-4, 7-5. Fighting for the semifinals the pair lost to Blue Valley North West’s Jonathon Lowe and Arvind Rachuraman in a three set tiebreaker, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

“It was close, the whole match I could say,” Lambert said. “I mean first set was reasonably close, second set was reasonably close … the third set was back and forth the entire time. We played reasonably well and we were winning for most of the match.”

After a two-hour long match, the pair win over Rural’s Clifton and Driggers, 9-6, and Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Reagan Walsh and Tyler Garland, 9-2. The two lost in a rematch to the second match against Downing and Batrouny, 9-4.

The second doubles pair Matt and Ben placed 11th with a record of 4-3. The two won the majority of their matches starting off with a win over Haysville Campus’ Mykel Alsley and Trevor Page, 6-0, 6-1, before losing to Walsh and Garland, 6-0, 5-2. The Turnleys came back with a win against Olathe East’s Braden Fain and Alden Vogel, 9-2, and Derby’s Daniel Dunn and Brady Walls, 9-3.

The pair lost the next matches against Lawrence free state’s Ian Pultz-Earl and Erik Czapinski, 9-5 and Blue Valley West’s Bradley Mills and RyanMoody, 9-5. At the end of the day the two capped their weekend with a win over Free State’s Seamus Ryan and Jonah Pester, 9-5.