Eric Harden, Lincoln Prep, track & field: “Last year, staying in the hotel with Tim Holman and Greg Wright and Tim was up singing Celia Cruz all night. That’s just his girl. He was so hyped, he was jumping on the bed and everything, even til 3 a.m.”

Brett Schwartz, Blue Springs, baseball: “It rained the day of our state championship game. We were all ready to go and we found out our game was delayed a couple of hours. Everybody tried to get hotel rooms and me and Kyle Barbeck got a room together. We tried talking about the game a little bit but got too nervous. We were itching to play.”

Molly Albrecht•SCHOOL: Lawrence Free State

•YEAR: Junior

The game seemed destined for overtime.

That’s what most everybody had to be thinking Thursday as the seconds ticked down on the de facto East Kansas League championship game between St. Thomas Aquinas and visiting Blue Valley West.

Not all was settled, but one thing was certain at the Missouri Class 2 District 8 boys tennis tournament Thursday — Park Hill was the best.

The Trojans placed two players each in the singles and doubles semifinals, had a singles player finish as runner-up, one place third and doubles teams place third and fourth. They ran away with the team race at Oak Park, winning with a score of 31.5.

Last week, several members of Chris Fotopoulos’ family watched the Shawnee Mission East junior play for the regional singles tennis championship.

Three of them — his father, Sam, grandfather John and aunt Carrie Barnthouse — won Kansas state tennis titles. Fotopoulos hopes to follow in their footsteps and win one this year.