Missouri Valley / Kansas

Team Kansas rallies at USTA League Nationals

Pete Francis | October 20, 2021

After finishing 6-2 in league play, Team Kansas participated at the USTA League Men’s 18 & Over 3.5 National Championships in Surprise, Arizona.

 

The team was captained by Ben Seitz of Topeka. Scott Ritter and Randy Knight also represented the team from the capitol city. Team Kansas had five players from Wichita (Co-captain Dylan Jones, Dustin Herman, Ryan Wolfe, Sachin Bharati, and Tony Schok). Lawrence’s Ben Stove and Kansas City’s Arjun Amaran also represented Team Kansas.

The players on the team had competed against each other for years and formed when Captain Ben Seitz (Topeka) and Dylan Jones (Wichita captain) discussed joining forces. 

 

“I probably started talking to Ben about the idea of Wichita and Topeka joining up about a year ago,” said Co-captain Dylan Jones. “When your entire state population is basically equal to the metro St. Louis area, you have to get creative to compete with the larger sections,” Jones added.

 

After captaining the 3.5 team to second in Nationals in 2019, Seitz said, “I had a pretty good idea of what it would take to compete for the title again.”

Prior to nationals, Team Kansas avenged a first day loss to Oklahoma to win the Sectionals championship and advance to nationals.

 

The team lost its first match at nationals but picked up three wins to finish third. 

 

“Always overcoming adversity,” is what Seitz is most proud of from the team’s performance. “Also the fact that we could bring Topeka and Wichita together for such an amazing team,” Seitz added.

 

“We had guys driving 60 miles two times a week just to practice for almost a year,” said Jones. “A lot of guys sacrificed time and money to come together and compete at the highest level.”

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