By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural senior Mason Casebeer captured the Centennial League singles championship Monday at Kossover Tennis Center while Junior Blue senior Kiefer Von Lintel and freshman Dylan Willingham won the league doubles title.
Rural finished second to Manhattan in the team race by a single point, 40-39, while Hayden was third with 29 points.
Casebeer, a former Class 6A state medalist rolled to 6-0, 6-1 win over Manhattan's Advith Nataraja in the singles final after Casebeer survived a 7-5, 7-6 (8-6 tiebreaker) semifinal with Manhattan's Drake Carr.
Von Lintel and Willingham dropped a 6-1 decision to Hayden senior Gus Glotzbach and junior Joseph Luke in the first set of the doubles final but the Rural duo bounced back to take a 6-1 win in the second set and took a 10-7 win in the super tiebreaker.
Rural also got a fifth-place doubles finish from junior Dylan Dodge and freshman Keegan Knudtson and a sixth-place finish in singles from junior Lawson Labatos.
In addition to Glotzbach and Luke's runnerup finish in doubles, Hayden got a sixth-place doubles finish from seniors Eli Wahlmeier and Daxton Ham and seventh and eighth-place singles finishes from Chris Hayes and Evan George.
Topeka High finished fifth in the team standings.
Washburn Rural and Topeka High will compete in a 6A regional tournament at Wichita on Friday while Hayden will host a 4A regional at Kossover.
CENTENNIAL LEAGUE TENNIS
Team scores
Manhattan 40, Washburn Rural 39, Hayden 29, Junction City 21, Topeka High 12, Emporia 4.
Individual results
Singles
Championship: Casebeer, Washburn Rural, def. Nataraja, Manhattan, 6-0, 6-1. Third place: Karr, Manhattan, def. Goerres, Emporia, 6-4, 6-4.
Doubles
Championship: Von Lintel/Willingham, Washburn Rural, def. Glotzbach/Luke, Hayden, 1-6, 6-1, 10-7. Third place: Ott/Spiegel, Manhattan, def. Hwang/Byerly, Manhattan, 3-6, 6-3, 10-2.