Storer, Nguyen punch 6A state tickets
Story and photo courtesy of Garden City High School Sports Information.
Singles players help Buffs place 3rd at 6A regional
The story of the Garden City Buffaloes’ boys’ tennis team during the 2026 spring season has been one of strong singles play from junior Zane Storer and senior Kevin Nguyen.
While those two veteran singles players have carried the weight for the Buffs, the development of the two doubles teams has been a slow, meticulous process for first-year head coach David Snodgrass.
On Friday at the Class 6A regional in Maize, it was once again the Storer-Nguyen efforts that paced the Buffs to place third as a team with 10 points, finishing behind Maize (23) and Derby (16).
Storer was the dominant force in the Open singles bracket, winning all three of his matches after being assigned the No. 1 seed and drawing a first-round bye. Nguyen, meanwhile, had to battle through the bracket as the No. 5 seed, winning two matches to place sixth and earn his spot in the May 15-16 state tournament in Wichita.
After straight set victories in the quarterfinals and semifinals, Storer had to rally from a one set deficit to Lincoln Kaumeyer of Maize in the title match. Kaumeyer won the first set 6-3 only to have Storer regain his form and dominate the next two sets, winning 6-1, 6-2.
Storer rolled through the quarters and semis with 6-0, 6-0 victory over Kale Arebalo of Wichita South and then a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Lucas Marin Vela of Dodge City in the semifinal. With the three wins, Storer improved his season record to 26-5.
“Zane played really steady in his first two matches and was moving the ball around and serving the ball very well,” Snodgrass said. “In his first set in the championship match, he got out of his normal rhythm but then did a great job of settling into his usual play in the second and third sets and dominated from there.”
Nguyen, meanwhile, won his opening match with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph over EDillon L’Ecuyer of Campus before dropping a 6-4, 6-3 match to Jayden McGrown of Maize in the quarters. That dropped Nguyen into the consolation bracket where he defeated Lucas Marin Vela of Dodge City, 6-4, 6-3. That secured his top six finish to earn his trip to state, the first in his four years of competing for the Buffs. He lost that match to Brennan Ball of Derby, 6-2, 6-3. His record heading to state is 21-8.
“I think at the end of the day it was just a good celebration for a fun season,” Snodgrass said. “Our younger players made great progress throughout the tournaments.”
The two doubles teams, though, were unable to make a top six finish to advance to state.
The team of Eleazar Sanchez and Law Htoo went 1-1, but the one victory came in the play-in bracket where they won 8-2 over Kaiden Schuhs and Geoffrey Bell of Wichita Northwest. That put them up against the No. 1 seed and eventual champions Alex Benage and Devin Francis of Maize where they fell, 0-6, 1-6.
Sophomore Brodie Snodgrass and junior Poe Du drew the No. 7 seed and won their opening match, 6-1, 6-0, over Bfrady Buth and Austin Lee of Wichita North. However, they ran into the No. 2 seeded team of Korbyn Womack and Jackson Duda of Maize, falling 3- uth and Austin Lee of Wichita North. However, they ran into the No. 2 seeded team of Korbyn Womack and Jackson Duda of Maize, falling 3- 6, 1-6. They were one match away from securing the coveted 5 vs. 6 match, but came up short in a three-set marathon before dropping a 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 decision to Jason Rabe and Joshua Ruiz Millan of Dodge City.
“The one thing about this group is that they competed hard and never gave up,” Snodgrass said. “It’s been a fun group to coach and it will be interesting to see how Zane and Kevin do next week.”
The 6A state is being played at Riverside Tennis Complex in Wichita and begins on Friday at 11 a.m. It concludes on Saturday.