photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Free State's Micah Ward pumps his first after scoring a point during the 6A state tennis tournament on Friday, May 15, 2026, in Wichita.

For the first time in school history, Free State finished second in the state in 6A boys tennis as the Firebirds’ two singles players finished in the top four and the doubles team placed ninth.

“Everybody contributed,” Free State coach Aaron Clark said. “Everybody played a part in that team finish. There were essentially three teams with three entrants going into day 2, and it ended up working out in our favor. The guys won the matches that they needed to win. I love individual state titles, but to me, that team finish is special.”

Micah Ward, who finished his season undefeated, won the singles state championship with a 4-0 record in the two-day tournament. Ward started Saturday with a matchup against teammate Ishaan Rao, who Ward beat in two sets, 6-2, 6-3.

In the championship match, Ward beat the No. 2 seed from Blue Valley West in two sets, 7-6 (4), 6-1. The first was a little rocky, as Ward tried to navigate playing through a shoulder injury. For the second set, a change in approach led to a dramatic result.

“I started coming to the net a lot more,” Ward said. “Because my shoulder has been injured, I wasn’t able to really finish from the baseline, and so because of that I was missing. I decided I was just going to not miss, just make every ball, even if it’s not a good ball that I’m hitting.”

The dominant finish capped off a dominant season in which Ward went undefeated. Clark said he believes it’s the first time the school has had a boys singles champion, and another Sunflower League coach told the Journal-World that it is the first time that siblings have won singles championships in the same season. Micah’s freshman sister, Eli, was the girls singles champion in October.

Rao started with the semifinal loss to Ward, which put him in the third-place match against Blue Valley West, who beat Rao 6-0, 6-4.

Rao finished the first day in a back-and-forth battle to reach the semifinals, where Rao ultimately prevailed in three sets. After winning the first set, Rao said he tightened up his game a bit, leading to the set loss. What made the difference in that third set was energy.

“It was back and forth until 3-all, until I broke his serve,” Rao said. “Then my energy started to go up, and then I carried the momentum until the end.”

Not only was the win needed for Rao to reach the semifinal, but it also ended up being the difference between Free State taking second and finishing third as a team. For Rao, who joined Free State this year after spending his first year at Bishop Seabury, helping secure that team wish was just as important.

“Being able to help the team achieve second was really special to me, and it was really special at that moment,” Rao said.

The two singles players earned Free State a combined 27 points. The three points to finish above third-place Shawnee Mission East came from the Firebirds’ doubles team of Andrew McCall and Drew Harrison.

The Free State duo lost the Saturday opening match in tiebreakers, falling 9-7 to Olathe Northwest’s duo. That loss put the Firebirds in the ninth-place bracket, where they fell to the eventual ninth-place finishers 8-6.

The 30 total team points came with a lot of individual skill on the roster, but the team continued to find ways throughout the season to build a cohesive dynamic, and that made a difference in the tournament.

“(Culture) is always the players, and it’s player driven,” Clark said. “They did a great job of pushing each other, leading each other, and challenging each other every day, and that’s where you end up with that second-place finish.”

That culture was felt by the team during the tournament. The Firebirds have tennis players who have played the sport for a long time, but the experience of this year’s team made competition a new experience.

“I’m looking forward to being with the team for the next two years and being able to develop a nice culture for younger people coming in,” Rao said. “Being able to experience (the team’s culture) was really new. In youth tennis, you don’t get many team opportunities, so being able to experience the culture, especially in a high school team format, was super important for us to bond as a team and for us to do well at state.”

Lawrence’s doubles team of Jack Bauch and Koh Brewer started their day with an 8-5 win over Washburn Rural’s doubles team, which put the Lion duo in the consolation semifinal. There, Bauch and Brewer lost to Mill Valley’s double team 8-4 and went on to the seventh-place match.

Three of Lawrence’s state tournament wins came against doubles teams that the Lions had lost to earlier in the year. Lawrence coach Stephen Hudson said its a testament to the Lawrence duo’s improvement throughout the season.

“To have that kind of redemption tour was awesome,” Hudson said. “I’m really proud of the guys, and they did it. I told them every chance I got to go out and have fun, enjoy the competition. We played like it. We played, especially in the last match, very loose and relaxed, and that’s the best way to play tennis.”

The Lions faced the No. 7 seeded Olathe Northwest doubles team, but the Lions prevailed 8-6 to improve from a No. 14 seed to a seventh-place finish in the tournament. The doubles pair scored eight points for Lawrence, which tied Olathe South for eighth. The duo often remarked how the on-court chemistry improved drastically during the season, and their ability to close out tight matches on the biggest stage showed just that.

“They didn’t want to let their seed determine who they were,” Hudson said. “I said, ‘You never know, upsets happen all the time.’ And we just kept believing that throughout the tournament.”

Lawrence concluded its first season under Hudson with the state tournament finish, and Hudson said he’s happy with how the boys and girls seasons went. For the boys, the Lions will be without Bauch and the team’s No. 1 singles player, Julian Bricker, next season. Returning Brewer and the other Lions who attended the tournament in support of their teammates will be a helpful step in the second year of the program under Hudson.

“I really enjoyed the first year,” Hudson said. “I can’t wait for it to start again in the fall with the girls. I feel like I learned a lot about other schools and the level of competition that we’re up against, and also just learning how to handle practices and the players and the culture.”