The defending 6A boys tennis state champions are back in Lincoln, and the Cardinals are looking more dangerous than ever.
Last weekend, the Cardinals finished first in the annual Rich Taylor Oregon High School Team Tennis Championships hosted by Jesuit at the Tualatin Hills Park & Rec Tennis Courts.
Lincoln finished with 76 points, easily passing by Lake Oswego in second with 44 and Jesuit in third with 40.
The tournament has eight teams with eight brackets for each seeded spot on the team: Singles players seeded 1-4 and doubles pairs seeded 1-4.
Lincoln walked away with four bracket wins, three second places and one third place. It was the first time the Cardinals have won the event in the 11 years Stuart Allen has been the head coach, and possibly the first time in the 39 years the event has been held that they won.
“It was a good team effort, really good team bonding,” Allen said. “It was great that we won it and I think we won it in convincing fashion. We definitely have the best team I’ve ever been involved with from top to bottom.”
In the No. 1 singles spot was sophomore Cayden Laughton, the defending state champion from 2025.
He breezed through the first two matches, taking down West Linn’s Perin Huberty 6-0, 6-0, then Lakeridge’s Sean Xiao 6-1, 6-0.
In the final, it was a rematch of the 2025 state title draw with Mountainside senior Arnav Arora. The Maverick was able to provide a big push, but Laughton withstood and won the match 7-5, 7-6 (6).
“Cayden had a really tough match,” Allen said. “I think it was a little bit of a wake up call for Cayden. I think on paper Cayden is better, but Arnav isn’t quitting and I appreciate that about him.”
Laughton competed at the Easter Bowl down in Indian Wells, California where he played some of the best competition from around the country in the 16-and-under singles bracket.
The Lincoln sophomore won his first two matches in straight sets, then won a third with a 10-5 tiebreaker win in the third set to advance to the quarterfinals. He lost there in straight sets.
“He’s so good he’s surpassed my ability to add anything to his game,” Allen said. “He’s developing relationships with the other kids and to me that’s what it’s all about. … I don’t know anything about his game that has changed other than the maturity and the preparation, he’s got it down.”
Senior Tiger Semler cruised through the No. 2 singles bracket as well, winning 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of Lakeridge’s Brayden Lee, followed by a 6-0, 6-1 win over Lake Oswego’s Jay Lee in the semifinals.
In the final, Semler took down Jesuit’s Logan Aman 6-2, 6-3.
The final singles winner was at No. 4 singles where junior Gautam Shanmugam upset Mountainside sophomore Abraham Eom to start with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Then it was a 6-4, 6-3 win over West Linn’s Will Schoepper and a 7-5, 6-0 win over Jesuit’s Shourya Pantankar in the final.
“(Shanmugam) wasn’t even going to play at No. 4 singles, the No. 4 singles guy got sick,” Allen said. “I gave him the game ball at Monday’s practice, that was a huge, huge thing for him. He’s a (constitution) team guy, kind of a brainiac guy, but very much a leader.”
Lincoln’s final bracket win came at No. 4 doubles where the duo of junior Anderson Kitzis and sophomore Orin Koteen fought their way to the title.
The Cardinal duo took out a crew from West Linn 6-0, 6-2 in the first round, survived in three sets over Lake Oswego 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the semis, and then took out Lakeridge 6-4, 6-3 in the final.
“I need to maybe take them down a notch,” Allen said of the confidence from the group. “I’m going to give them confidence, but I’m also going to try to not get them too over confident.”
Lincoln still has all of its PIL matches to go plus a tournament out in Bend hosted by Caldera on April 17-18, so there’s plenty of type to keep improving for the state champs.
Plus, Allen has seen the PIL grow tremendously this year as seen by Grant playing in the tournament this past weekend, along with McDaniel winning many duals so far and Roosevelt hosting a full squad.
“I really do want the other teams to field strong teams, everyone wins in that scenario,” Allen said.
The PIL district tournament will be in mid-May ahead of the state tournament scheduled for May 21-23 back at THPRD Tennis Courts.
Winning the Jesuit tournament is a good sign, but anything can happen between now and May 23.
“I want to remind them, I think we’re the front runners, but we could lose pretty quickly if we’re not on our game,” Allen said. “I’m not banking on this, but it’s a good momentum toward that direction.”
Young Mountainside getting better quickly
After finishing fifth as a team last year at state and graduating quite a few players, it’s a restart for Mountainside head coach Michael Horton.
However, his No. 1 singles player is back in senior Arnav Arora after taking second place individually at state last year.
Arora got a rematch with Lincoln’s Cayden Laughton in the final of the Rich Taylor Oregon High School Team Tennis Championships last weekend, and put up a closer fight than last year.
In the 2025 title match, Laughton won 6-1, 6-4. But this time around, the sets were closer with Arora pushing the match to a 7-5, 7-6 (6) win for the Lincoln sophomore.
“(Arora) is playing great,” Horton said. “He’s the captain of the team this year and you can just tell he plays a more mature game. A little more focused all the time.”
Arora had only one loss coming into the Jesuit tournament and it was to Crusaders senior Tristan Hernandez. The two met in the No. 1 singles semifinals where Arora got revenge with a 6-2, 7-5 victory.
As for the rest of the Mavericks squad, no other player was able to win a match in the first round, but plenty rebounded on the consolation side to keep winning. Mountainside ultimately placed seventh out of eight teams with 16.5 points.
One of those players to come back and keep winning was sophomore Aiden Hanks. He dropped his first match to top-seed Lakeridge’s Owen Ollivier in three sets. Hanks, a lefty, took the first first set 6-4, but dropped the next two 6-0, 6-0.
In the consolation semifinals, Hanks took out Ibrahim Kellogg from South Eugene 6-3, 6-1. And in the fourth place match, Hanks beat Jesuit’s Andy Ma 6-7 (1), 6-0, 6-2.
“(Hanks) played either No. 3 or 4 singles last year,” Horton said. “He’s 5-1 right now … He’s kind of my shining star this year. He’s a real solid, solid upper-end No. 3 singles player. Doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, playing a lot smarter. Kudos to him, he’s such a great kid.”
No. 4 singles player Abraham Eom, a sophomore, came back to take fourth as well and No. 1 doubles duo Cutler Carlson, a junior, and Brandon Martindale, a junior, took sixth.
For the team as a whole, there’s plenty of learning to do for a green team, but Horton is seeing the results starting to come together about halfway through the season.
“The crew this year, I told them up front that we’re going to have fun,” Horton said. “Let’s learn the basics. No. 1, let’s improve.”
More boys tennis notes
Vale sophomore Eli Seals was named the OSAA Athlete of the Week for March 30-April 5 after winning the Madras tournament at No. 1 singles. He’s 10-0 on the season. … La Salle Prep junior Kaiden Harris, a state champion as a freshman and runnerup last year as a sophomore, is listed at 6-1 this season looking to get back to the top of the podium in 5A. … Catlin Gabel junior Zareh Gonzalvo, a state runnerup in 2024 as a freshman and the No. 2 seed last year, is listed at 9-0 this season.
austinw@osaa.org
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