Locked in a tight battle with Shawnee Heights, the Mustangs picked up key victories from all four entries Saturday -- highlighted by a doubles title for juniors Craig Knox and Will Exline -- to decisively defend their team crown at the Wulz Riverside Tennis Center.

Only Salina South's Jan Labas stood between Central and a perfect day, beating the Mustangs' Spencer Brass, 6-0, 6-1 for the singles championship.

"That's something that's pretty cool," Exline said of the team title. "It's fun to keep the tradition going."

Knox and Exline did their part and more to keep the dynasty intact, knocking off both teams that finished ahead of them at regionals last week. After edging McPherson's Cody Fawl and Nathan Wehrman, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) in the semifinals, they dominated regional champs Luke Fangman and Ben Braun of Hutchinson, 6-2, 6-3, for the title.

"We had nothing to lose, because they had beaten us three times," Knox said of Fangman and Braun, who took them out in straight sets in the regional semifinals.

It was their first meeting with Fawl and Wehrman.

"We were really active on our feet, and our returns were on point," Exline said. "We served really well all day.

"At the end of (Friday), we were not quite at the top of our game, but today we came in fresh and knew what we had to do."

As it turned out, thanks to the consolation bracket work of Connor Brass in singles and Michael Ethridge and Ross Rundell in doubles, neither Mustang semifinal entry had to win a match Saturday to secure the team championship.

Connor Brass opened with a 9-5 victory over Emporia's Chris Reimer, then topped regional champion Adam Lawrence of Winfield, 9-3, for fifth place.

"We knew if our doubles team and I won our first match, state was sealed," Connor Brass said. "We played really well."

Ethridge and Rundell beat top-seeded Kevin Klein and Jordan Keller of Wichita Carroll, 9-7, before falling to Topeka West's Garrett Gunn and Andrew Davids, 9-8 (7-3) in the fifth-place match -- all after dropping their first-rounder on Friday.

"We knew we needed a big win because we wanted to take some of the pressure off the other guys and we went out and played big," Rundell said.

While his teammates were advancing on the back side, Spencer Brass was locked in a tense three-set semifinal with Shawnee Heights' Chance Joost. Shawnee Heights had both its entries in the semis, making the head-to-head matchup all the more important.

"I was really happy with my semifinal match," said Brass, who finally edged Joost 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, holding serve for the match after being broken twice at 5-2 and 5-4. "I really wanted to win that one.

"I knew when Connor won his first match that we had won (the team title), but I was pretty into it anyway. It was a pretty intense match."

After outlasting Joost, Brass had little left in the tank for Labas, South's Slovakian exchange student, who dropped just eight games in four matches to complete a perfect season at 34-0.

"He played very well, and I was pretty tired with that last match," Brass said. "He just doesn't make mistakes, and he hits winners when he wants to."

Labas' closest match came in Saturday's semifinal, a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory over Topeka Seaman's Steven Fletcher.

"The first match both days were pretty slow starting," Labas said. "But after the first set in each first match I warmed up and was pretty relaxed."

Labas and Brass were familiar foes in the finals after Labas beat him both for the regional and Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League titles last week.

"I knew his game and he knew mine, but I had beaten him twice so I was pretty confident," Labas said.

Central handily won the team title with 45 points to 24 for runner-up Shawnee Heights, but Labas alone put South in third place with 16.

"That was kind of weird, but I'm glad I can represent my school like this," said Labas, who after returning to Bratislava, Slovakia to finish high school hopes to play collegiately in the United States. "This was an awesome year.

"I made a lot of good friends."

While Labas breezed through as the No. 1 seed -- only the four regional winners are seeded -- Central's entries all had to get past regional champions Saturday on the way to the team crown.

"It was an incredible day," Central coach Jim LoVullo said. "What a neat feeling for the kids because they all had their Super Bowl matches today."

All with a target on their backs.

"With the tradition we've had, I didn't want to be the senior class to let us down," said a smiling Rundell, the lone senior on a team with five juniors. "All the pressure was on me."

Added Ethridge: "Hopefully it will be six next year."