Columbus North’s Kathryn Wilson is The Republic Girls Tennis Player of the Year. She is pictured at The Republic in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, June 12, 2024.
Kathryn Wilson found herself on top of the Indiana girls tennis peak once again.
The Columbus North senior dominated just about every tennis opponent she faced this season and throughout her four-year career with the Bull Dogs. She put the icing on the cake earlier this month when she won her second consecutive state singles title.
During her freshman and sophomore seasons, Wilson started out at No. 2 singles because her sister Ashlie played No. 1 singles for North. Kathryn got to see Ashlie play in the state singles tournament following Kathryn’s sophomore season. Ashlie eventually lost in the semifinal round.
When her junior year of tennis approached, Kathryn Wilson said her top goal was to try and capture a state title. She did just that — twice.
Wilson accomplished everything since she came into the program as a freshman. To get to the top, she knew it would take a lot of practice to reach that level of competition. She said when she played basketball her freshman to junior seasons, she’d practiced three or four times a week depending how her body felt. When Wilson decided to focus on just tennis her senior year, she practiced at least six times a week for about two hours a day. In addition to her tennis practice, she also did a lot of running and weightlifting to stay in top form.
“That was what I wanted to do, but you never know what was going to happen,” said Wilson, who repeats as The Republic Girls Tennis Player of the Year. “I could have gotten hurt. I could have not been as good as I was or couldn’t have pulled that out at the end. I don’t know if I expected it, but I definitely wanted it.”
Wilson’s love for tennis started when she first picked up a racket at about 3 years old. When she was 6, she played in her first tennis tournament. She ended up winning that tournament, ultimately, setting the stage for much future success.
Coming from a strong family background in tennis, Wilson credited her family for being a huge influence to her tennis career. Along with Ashlie, her mother Mary Beth was a tennis player at Purdue, and her father Brian was an All-State tennis player at Greenwood.
“They all meant so much to me,” Kathryn said. “My whole family has grown up in tennis, so they’ve known how to deal with the mental pressure and physical part of it. Tennis is really hard on your body, so I learned how to deal with all that. It’s definitely helped to have guidance through it all.”
There’s no doubt Wilson has solidified herself in the Mount Rushmore of top players to ever go through the Bull Dog tennis program. She won two state singles titles and was the first singles state champion since Caroline Hedrick won in 2008.
“She is what we look at for everybody when we talk about a Columbus North Bull Dog. She’s a leader, she’s a hard worker. She takes care of business on the court. Off the court, her sportsmanship is very good, no matter who she plays,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “That’s what we want people to look up to down the road when we talk about what’s expected of our tennis players and what you can contribute to the team. It’s really what Kathryn has done for not only the last couple years playing No. 1 the whole time, but playing all four years in what she did and what it takes to get to that point to achieve those goals and those acknowledgements she has received.”
Wilson picked up many other accolades this past season. She was named again to the First-Team All-State, All-District 8 and All-Conference Indiana teams. She posted a 28-1 singles record at No. 1 this year after going 30-0 last year.
Wilson also was named the team’s Most Valuable Player and the Bull Dog Award recipient.
One person that was not surprised that Wilson garnered so many accomplishments was Hammel.
“When she came in, she was one of those players, just like Hank Lin was before he even became a freshman, we all said that he is going to achieve a lot of good stuff, and Kathryn was that same situation,” Hammel said. “Is it a surprise? No. It’s not. We expected that from her, and she probably expected that, and that sometimes puts the pressure on her in that situation. We thought that she would achieve a lot of good things in her high school career at Columbus North. “
Wilson never lost a match at No. 2 singles, going 44-0 during her first two years at North, and went 2-1 at No. 1 singles during that span when she filled in for Ashlie. For her four-year tennis career, she posted an overall record of 104-2.
“It makes me really excited that I was able to accomplish that much,” Wilson said. “This could happen to anyone. It’s about how hard you work, and I worked really, really hard for it.”
Wilson will be teaming up with her sister once again when she will continue playing tennis at Purdue next year. Kathryn, along with Ashlie, both left a couple weeks ago to begin training and practicing with their Boilermaker teammates.
“We always wanted to play college tennis together,” Kathryn said. “We’re really excited about it. The chances of two siblings being able to go to one school for college level sports is very low, so we’re happy we’re able to do that.”
The 2024 Republic All-Area Girls Tennis team:
Kathryn Wilson, Columbus North: The senior went 28-1 at No. 1 singles and won the state singles title.
Aya Saad, Columbus North: The junior went 20-2, mostly at No. 2 singles.
Annabelle Sun, Columbus North: The junior went 10-4 in singles matches and 6-3 in doubles matches.
Lizzie Bodart, Columbus North: The junior went 15-10, mostly at No. 1 doubles.
Lucy Bergman, Columbus North: The sophomore went 15-10, mostly at No. 1 doubles.
Lison Cloteaux, Columbus North: The senior went 5-4 in singles matches and 11-5 in doubles matches.
Grace Conner, Columbus North: The junior went 17-8, mostly at No. 2 doubles.
Tatum Brown, Jennings County: The senior went 18-4 at No. 1 singles and won a sectional singles title.
Anna Stogsdill, Brown County: The senior went 12-8 at No. 1 singles.
Bella Kilps, Hauser: The senior went 10-6 at No. 1 singles.
Honorable mention
Brown County: Julia Burt, Ava Kelly, Cady Kemp, Anna Tipton. Columbus North: Ella Gray Partin, Ayane Umemura. Edinburgh: Jessica Walsh. Hauser: Addy Barriger, Mattie Foster. Jennings County: Kaydence Lowman. Trinity Lutheran: Drew Hubbard.
