He got his wish.
“This was a great tournament for our kids to compete in and get experience,” Stredney said.
The 8-team tournament included mostly 5A and 6A schools plus Smoky Valley, ranked No. 1 in 4A.
Abilene scored 35 team points with Matthew Barlow placing second in singles and the doubles team of Jordan Guccione and Tommy Yeager placing 10th.
“Matthew had a very good tournament,” he said. “He upset the No. 3 seed from Salina South who was a 5A state qualifier. He played a great match in the semis beating the No. 2 seed from Salina Central. He then played the 4A state champ in the finals.”
Both singles and doubles team played in a single 16-team bracket.
Barlow won, 8-0, over Stephen Wilson of Andover, defeated third-seeded Zach Lantz of Salina South, 8-6, and defeated two-seeded Luke Johnson of Central, 8-6. He lost to top-seeded Quinn Dippel of Smoky Valley, 8-0.
Kaynan Anderson won his first match 8-1 over Sam Hong of Manhattan. He then faced Dippel losing 8-0. He lost his last two matches to Chris Garcia of Salina South and Hayden Woods of Maize South.
The Abilene doubles team of Guccione and Yeager lost the opening match to T.J. Turnley and Taylor Knapp of Manhattan 8-7 (7-4 tiebreaker). They defeated Hunter Wilkens and Cody Brown of Hays, 8-2, and lost to Alex Bycroft and Kyler Arpin of Salina South in another close match, 8-7 (7-4 tiebreaker).
Connor Dunlap and Connor Kijowski, Abilene’s second doubles team entry, lost to third-seeded Maize (Avery Emmert and Hunter Tucker), 8-2, and lost to Bycroft and Aprin of South, 8-5.
In team scoring Salina edged Smoky Valley with 54 points. The Vikings scored 53 followed by Maize South 46, Salina South 36, Abilene 35, Manhattan 33, Hays 18 and Andover 5.