The varsity boys tennis team had their regional tournament on May 4. The team as a whole got first place out of 16 teams, with all six varsity players making it to state.

The meet was at Conway Springs and started at 11. Sophomores Joshua Koester and Peyton Winter competed in doubles and took home 1st place. Sophomore Cody Jones and senior Trenton Jones also competed in doubles getting 3rd place.

“We performed well as a team, but there is a lot of room for improvement going into state,” Cody said.

Senior Jacob Kautz and sophomore Luke Bellar competed in the singles tournament. Playing each other in the second round, Bellar took the win and went on to take 4th place while Kautz took 6th place. In both singles and doubles, the top six finishers advanced to the state tournament.

“The competition seemed a little easier this year, but I had to go against Luke,” said Kautz. “I’m hoping to get top four in state.”

Head Coach Chris Bellar has been to state 26 years out of the 27 years he has been coaching at Conway. He holds his team to high expectations at the state tournament and hopes for the best. The 3-2-1A State Tournament will be held on May 11-12 in Wichita at the Riverside Tennis Complex.

“I want the team to be ready to compete,” Coach Bellar said. “I’m wanting to get top three at state.”

In the first match of the season, the boys varsity team competed at home on March 29. Senior Jacob Kautz and sophomore Luke Bellar competed in singles, and doubles partners included seniors Trenton Jones and Colt Shobe and sophomores Joshua Koester and Peyton Winter. As a team, the boys earned first place.

    “I think I did really well for my first meet,” Kautz said. “I’ve really improved on my serves, which is important because you don’t want to give them free points.”

    Kautz took home the first place medal in singles for CSHS, with Bellar earning second. Koester/Peyton took home gold while Jones/Shobe tied for second in doubles. Jones said that the friendship between the two partners sometimes hinders their performance.

    “We need to work on our teamwork,” he said. “We get mad at each other sometimes and will tell each other how it is.”

    The next meet for the varsity group is April 12 at Maize High School. Although it is still early in the season, Koester has ambitious goals for this season.

    “The ultimate goal is to make it to State and compete well,” he said. “We just have to keep working hard in practice.”

As the basketball season ends, the boys tennis season is beginning. Practice started Feb. 26. There are 24 boys participating in tennis this year. One new member is freshman  Colby Osner.

“I’m excited for the season,” Osner said. “I like playing tennis, and I’m excited for my first high school season.”

Three returning players were state participants: sophomore Luke Bellar and seniors Trenton Jones and Jacob Kautz.

“I’m hoping to go to state again,” Bellar said. “I feel like I didn’t do as well at state as I could last year, so if I can make it again this year, I’ll do a lot better.”

Six players can qualify for state: two singles players, and two teams of doubles players. State will be on May 11.

“I hope the team makes state this year,” freshman Aidan May said. “I would like to try to make the varsity team for doubles as much as possible as well.”

The first JV meet is on March 27 at Pratt and the first varsity meet is on March 29 at home.

“It should be a fun year,” head coach Chris Bellar said. “We’ve got good senior depth and new talent coming in, and I’m hoping everyone will improve their game, form a good team atmosphere, get the whole team to state, and compete at a higher level.”

        As the regular season came to an end, both basketball teams prepared for substate. The boys went into the tournament as the No. 6 seed, making their first game against the No. 3 seeded Kingman Eagles. The game was hosted by Kingman and tipped off at six o’clock on Monday, Feb. 26.

        “We expected them to come out and knew we had to play good D,” sophomore Peyton Winter said. “In the end, it really just came down to ball possessions.”

        The Cardinals were led by senior Christian Hedrick’s 27 points through regulation time, sending them into overtime against the Eagles with a 45-45 score. The Cardinals were unable to pull off the upset, though, and dropped the game, 52-54.

        “We played well,” Hedrick said. “If we would’ve played like that all season, we would have had more wins.”

        The loss ended the season for the boys and brought their overall record to 4-17. With three sophomores and one freshman starting for the team this year, freshman Jonathan Wright said he is hopeful for next season.

        “We did pretty good for a bunch of freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “We’ll probably do a lot better next year because we will be older and more experienced.”

        On Friday, Feb. 2, the Cardinals played a home game against the Trinity Knights. Varsity girls tipped off at 6 o’clock with the varsity boys following, as usual. The girls came out with their 12th win of the season with a final score of 52-49.

        Senior Sabrina Bellar led the Cardinals with 19 points. Bellar now averages 13.8 points per game. Junior Kayla Koester led the girls with 11 total rebounds.

        “We took control of the game early and played tough defense,” Koester said.

         For the boys, although it was a close score of 7-11 after the first quarter, the Cardinals fell behind the Knights in the second quarter, going into halftime with a score of 9-24, a 15-point deficit. The final score was 19-57, dropping them to 3-13 for the season.

        “We just weren’t smart with the ball,“ sophomore Cody Jones said. “We played very soft.”

        Due to injury in the lineup, Jones started against the Knights for the first time this season. Sophomore Collin Koester led the Cardinals in points with six.

        The teams will play a home game against the Garden Plain Owls on homecoming night, Friday, Feb. 9, with JV games beginning at 4:30. Senior starter Christian Hedrick has a positive outlook on the game.

        “I think we will be alright,” he said. “We just gotta stick with the game plan.”

The varsity girls basketball team played in a three-game tournament from Jan. 22-27 in Mulvane. The team played Winfield first on Jan. 23 and won 55-26 and then played Collegiate on Jan. 25 and won 51-46. They were undefeated in the tournament going into the championship game against Andale.

“We fought hard the whole tournament, and I thought we would do great in the championship game,”  junior Lexi Fisher said. “What we did best against Andale was our communication and pushing through the whole four quarters.”.

They went on to defeat Andale 44-34, keeping the Indians to 8 points in the second half.

“We played defense very well against Andale,” junior Kayla Koester said. Our communication was key; we all knew where the shooters were at all times.”

Senior Sabrina Bellar led the Cardinals with 14 points. Bellar was announced MVP of the tournament after averaging nearly 19 points per game.

“I was surprised to receive MVP, but it felt nice and was a nice reward,” Bellar said.