By Ken Hansard
Most coaches believe that the best players and teams are metaphorically forged in fire. And for Salina Central’s highly successful girls’ tennis team, that trial by fire starts at practice. As the Mustangs’ Claire Renfro states, “Our doubles are really competitive, and in many of our tournaments we end up playing each other in the finals.” It is just that kind of competition day-in and day-out that has made the Mustangs’ doubles team of Kinsley Foth and Claire Renfro so tough to beat.
Foth and Renfro started to gel right out of the gates during their sophomore year. Although they had only played together a couple of times, the pair still managed to finish 4 th out of 32 teams at the always tough Andover Grand Slam, a finish which Foth called, “A real confidence booster.” They finished their sophomore season 30-8, winning their regional. They followed that up by finishing a solid 7 th at the 5A State Tournament. Heading into their junior season, they appeared to be headed toward even greater heights.
And right up until this year’s state tournament, they were nearly unstoppable, posting a stellar 27-5 record heading into regionals. Unfortunately, Foth and Renfro ran into another pair of Mustangs as well as some bad luck. The duo managed to finish runner-up to Central’s other doubles team of Mallory and Addison Renfro, but only one of them would actually move on to the state tournament, as Foth, in the regional finals, planted awkwardly, twisting and tearing her ACL, which unfortunately brought her very successful junior season to a premature end.
Fortunately, Renfro was able to finish out her junior season by teaming up with Brooke Banninger to finish 10 th at state in doubles, helping the Mustangs to hoist the 5A State Runner-Up team trophy. And fortunately for Foth, she was able to share in Central’s ultimate success, commenting, “My final record with Claire (this season) was 30-6, and as a team we placed runner-up for state title.”
As for the future, the Mustangs should be loaded again next year, and with the return of a healthy Foth to the Foth-Renfro team, once more, the sky should be the limit.
