Mexico’s McKeown secures all-state tennis medal

By Jeremy Jacob, Sports Editor
Posted 5/24/23

It was the first day, and the tournament was already testing Mexico junior Brendan McKeown.

McKeown appeared at the Class 1 state boys individual boys tournament as the first Bulldog to do so in …

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Mexico’s McKeown secures all-state tennis medal

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It was the first day, and the tournament was already testing Mexico junior Brendan McKeown.

McKeown appeared at the Class 1 state boys individual boys tournament as the first Bulldog to do so in 2015. He finished 2-1 on the tournament’s first day on Friday at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, defeating Monett’s No. 1 player Ethan Kutz in his third match 7-6 (7-3 tiebreaker), 6-1 to eventually earn seventh place and a state medal.

“Brendan had to wait two and half hours to play his last match on Friday night,” head coach Tony Senor said. “We made sure Brendan was eating healthy foods and staying hydrated for his next match. We also made sure he took a few walking laps to stretch out his legs to be ready to play. Brendan started off real slow in this match, and he had to start digging deep to win the 1st set. Once Brendan won the set tiebreaker, there was no looking back. Playing in a tournament can be mentally and physically exhausting and sometimes, it comes to who has the biggest gas tank to get the job done. Brendan has proven over and over again that he can compete for extended periods of time in long matches.”

McKeown defeated Monett’s Heisman Welch 6-3, 6-1 and lost to state runner-up Savannah’s Cole Horton 0-6, 0-6 earlier in the day.

On Saturday, McKeown lost to Clayton’s Spencer Pompian 2-6, 4-6 to determine whether he would play for fifth or seventh place. Clayton is a school that has finished in the state Final Four five out of the previous six years, including this year.

“Pompian is a great player and he rattled Brendan pretty early,” Senor said. “Brendan tried to come back in the second set but just couldn’t string together some big time points. They did make it to advantage many times in their match and Brendan could not take the lead on some of those critical points.”

McKeown did not play the a seventh place match due to a forfeit, bringing his final record to 22-6 in a season that included a first-place North Central Missouri Conference finish and individual districts finish.


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