Free State's Ian Pultz-Earle, left, and Erik Czapinski celebrate a point during the Class 6A state tournament on Saturday, May 16, 2015, in Olathe.

Olathe ? Free State High doubles partners sophomore Ian Pultz-Earle and freshman Erik Czapinski lost both of their matches Saturday on the second day of the Class 6A boys state tennis tournament.

They were a disappointed with the setbacks but couldn’t be happier with their first state tournament experience at the College Boulevard Activities Center. Pultz-Earle and Czapinski took 12th place in doubles, while Lawrence High junior Elliott Abromeit also finished 12th in singles.

“Those close matches have been good learning experiences,” Pultz-Earle said. “In some ways, the result this year doesn’t matter as much if we learn stuff. I felt like in those, we figured some things out. Even in the losses, we can use that knowledge, skill and experience next year.”

Pultz-Earle and Czapinski lost their first match by tiebreaker Saturday, falling to Washburn Rural’s Brenden Garland and Tanner Driggers, 9-8 (7-4).

“These are really good players,” Czapinski said. “Everybody here on the second day or the first day is supposed to be here. There’s a reason why they qualified.”

In their final match of the tournament, they lost 9-6 to Shawnee Mission East’s Lane Cooper and Barrett Anderson, whom they beat to take third place at regionals. Three of Pultz-Earle and Czapinski’s four losses at state were by three games or less.

“We just didn’t execute on the important points,” Czapinski said. “It just seems to be a trend with us.”

Abromeit also lost both of his matches Saturday. He lost to Shawnee Mission East’s Billy Louiselle, 9-4, and fell to Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Tyler Garland, 9-6. Abromeit was down, 7-2, in his match against Garland before he fought back to win four of the next six games.

“He was struggling a little bit between the ears, and we were able to straighten that out and focus on one ball at a time and get some points back in there,” LHS coach Chris Marshall said.

Though Abromeit was upset with some of his reactions when he was losing, he was thrilled with what he accomplished over the weekend.

“My goal overall was to make the second day,” Abromeit said. “That’s just awesome. Getting to play a couple of really tough matches is just icing on the cake. I kind of wish I had been a little more mentally stable.”

Abromeit changed his grip at the beginning of the season, and he improved in the months that followed. Now he hopes he can build on his state experience to enhance his game next year.

“It was a great, great learning experience,” Marshall said. “I think we learned more from this state experience than we learned from almost the whole season. We had ups and downs, roller coasters. We learned a lot about each other. It was a great experience.”

All of the three city players who advanced to the second day of the state tournament are hungrier than ever to make a return trip next season.

“We came to compete,” Czapinski said, “and we’ll do better next year.”