Washburn and Garr Dominate Doubles Championship and Lead Team to 13 Match Wins at New Platte County Tourney

On Friday, the top seven players from Chillicothe girls’ tennis program competed in the newly formed Platte County Invitational where they competed against many of the largest Kansas City Metro schools including Liberty North, Park Hill South, Platte County, RayPec, St. Joe Central, Warrensburg, and Savannah. Each athlete competed in her designated categories all day, playing only the corresponding athletes from the other schools in bracket play. When Coach Chambers signed up for this new tournament, she did so with the intention of playing high level athletes to help her players get better at hitting, but she knew the competition would be fierce. She warned her athletes ahead of time not to get too down if they did not see any wins all day because they were playing so many Class 3 and Class 2 teams. They understood they might come away with all 8th place finishes for the day. Coach simply asked the girls to all “go get better at hitting today and have fun while you’re at it. This is better than any practice I could ever give you.”

However, Coach Chambers was quickly proven wrong as, match after match, all seven of her players held their own on every court on which they stepped. By the end of the singles’ half of the day, all of her top six had obtained a win or two, guaranteeing that none of them placed 8th in their bracket. By the end of the doubles portion of the afternoon, Chillicothe was over-the-moon to watch seniors Rylee Washburn and Isabella Garr dominate their #1 Doubles bracket to win the championship over all other schools. In addition, the only loss Rylee Washburn experienced all day, going 4-1 on the day, was to Park Hill South’s #1 player who eventually won the entire tournament. Finally, every single player from CHS earned a win by day’s end, and the team did not leave with a single 8th place finish on any bracket. Coach Chambers reports, “All of our athletes played outstanding tennis today. Even when they lost, they still looked the strongest I have seen all season or ever in their careers.” By the end of the day, the team had accumulated 13 total wins, far exceeding all expectations and leaving them only three points behind the second place overall team finishers.

Results were as follows for all nine separate brackets:

#1 Singles Rylee Washburn — 5th place — lost to Park Hill South, beat Liberty North, beat Platte County

#2 Singles Isabella Garr — 4th place — beat St. Joe Central, lost to RayPec, lost to Liberty North

#3 Singles Bryton BeVelle — 7th place — lost to RayPec, lost to Warrensburg, beat Park Hill South

#4 Singles Micah Crowe — 7th place — lost to Liberty North, lost to St. Joe Central, beat Park Hill South

#5 Singles Bianca Clark — 7th place — lost to Platte County, lost to Park Hill South, beat Warrensburg

#6 Singles Keonnia Morgan — 6th place — lost to RayPec, beat Warrensburg, lost to Platte County

#1 Doubles — Washburn & Garr — 1st place — beat Liberty North, beat Platte County, beat Park Hill South

#2 Doubles — BeVelle & Crowe — 5th place — lost to St. Joe Central, beat Park Hill South, beat Liberty North

#3 Doubles — Clark & Keeley Shira — 6th place — lost to Platte County, beat RayPec, lost to Savannah

Team Results were as follows:

1st — Platte County (19 points)

2nd — St. Joe Central (16 points)

3rd — Liberty North (16 points)

4th — Savannah (15 points)

5th — Park Hill South (14 points)

6th — Chillicothe (13 points)

7th — Warrensburg (8 points)

8th — RayPec (7 points)