BEAVERTON – Last year, Lincoln sophomore Cayden Laughton made his introduction to high school tennis by winning the 6A individual crown as a freshman.
In 2026, there’s a new name joining Laughton among the state’s best, and that’s Roseburg sophomore Alexander Totoian.
The Roseburg sophomore, seeded fifth, cruised his way into the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 6A boys tennis state finals on Saturday at Tualatin Hills Tennis Center where he faced off with the defending champion in Laughton.
The Lincoln sophomore was able to put up a good fight early in each set, but ultimately it was Totoian closing out each frame to win in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 and become Roseburg’s first individual state champion since Roger McKee in 1969.
“It’s really awesome, I was really nervous going into the tournament,” Totoian said. “The Roseburg people think I’m very good and I can beat everybody. I’m a good player, but I still had to beat good players, it’s not a walk in the park.”
Last year, the district tournament didn’t work out for Totoian’s schedule as he plays tournaments outside of the high school scene as well.
This year, it lined up to allow him to play for Roseburg and he was able to put on display his talents for the whole state to witness.
Consistently he would prolong points with strong returns back to Laughton, waiting for an opportunity to strike and win points despite long rallies.
“(Laughton) is a great mover, he hits a lot of balls and puts a lot of pressure, always makes you play one extra ball,” Totoian said. “I was thinking, ‘I’m just going to work the points, stay patient and when I get the right ball, attack.’”
Laughton, who played a tournament last week in Las Vegas, was nursing a wrist injury, but decided to play through it to go after state title No. 2.
The effort came up a little short, but Lincoln head coach Stuart Allen was happy to see him give it his best shot.
“He decided to play and he wasn’t at his best,” Allen said. “He played a bit too safe. I think if he had the confidence and wasn’t wincing with every backhand I think he could have beat (Totoian) because he’s beat him before.”
There was a healthy back and forth between Lincoln and Roseburg supporters to make the match that much more electric, a crowd size that Totoian said he didn’t expect but also said it energized him.
That support helped through the first few rounds where the No. 5 seed started against Newberg junior Andrew Swartout with a 6-1, 6-0 victory.
In round two, Totoian took out Sheldon’s Andy Brown 6-1, 6-1 and kept the hot streak going into the quarterfinals where he beat No. 4 seed Camden Board of Tigard 6-4, 6-0.
In the semifinals, Totoian was matched against No. 2 Tristan Hernandez of Jesuit, and he made swift work of the higher seed with a 6-1, 6-2 win to make the finals.
“I was surprised by how many people there were, there were a lot of people,” Totoian said. “It was a great atmosphere and I think that allowed me to play better. Just had to stay focused the whole match.”
Totoian plus his teammates in sophomore Ramin Abrahime in singles and senior Alex Howard and sophomore Alex Hoddle in doubles combined to score 14 points and finish in a tie for second place as a team with Jesuit. Lake Oswego took fourth with 12 points.
But there was no catching Lincoln as a team as the Cardinals finished with 24 points to win their second consecutive team state title and their third in the past five years.
“We just make it fun,” Allen said of the team. “Tennis is a very individual sport, it’s lonely, it’s with your parents playing in a tournament far away by yourself. … We just try to have as much fun as possible and I think it feeds off itself.”
Lincoln had three doubles pairs make the state tournament bracket and it was a whirlwind of results.
Senior Roland Alexander and sophomore Nathan Ramachandran were the No. 2 seed, but lost their first match in the second round. They battled back to win the consolation bracket.
Senior Tiger Semler and junior Charlie Torch were the No. 8 seed and took home the state title with upsets of the No. 4, 6 and 1 seeds.
The championship match against the No. 1 duo in James Cui and David Cui of Lake Oswego was a gauntlet, going three sets in the sun of the outdoor court.
Semler and Torch were able to gut out the final set though and took the match 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
“They were definitely playing really well, they found some hot streaks in the middle of the match there,” Semler said. “We stayed tough and battled through it.”
Allen said they made a switch to pair the two together toward the end of the season as Semler, the little brother of three-time state champion Will Semler, has primarily been a singles player during high school.
The switch paid off well.
“It’s been awesome, (Semler) is a big man, serves big, overheads are big,” Torch said. “I just gotta sit there and chill some times.”
“Best part about it is the energy we bring to the table,” Semler added. “Just always pumping each other up so it’s been great.”
Semler is committed to play at San Diego next year and gets to end his prep career with a state title.
“Tiger had a bit of an up and down high school career, great kid and great player,” Allen said. “Him and Charlie, I don’t think I’ve ever seen more testosterone in two kids in my life. They pumped each other up, they fought hard and dug through. It was really fun to watch Tiger finish his career and Charlie is coming back and he’ll be able to raise another person next year for the team.”
5A
After winning the 5A state title as a freshman in 2024, La Salle Prep junior Kaiden Harris was quickly at the top of the state in terms of individual players.
However, Harris’ shot at being a four-time winner was cut short last year when he lost to Crescent Valley’s Richard Wang in straight sets in the final.
Back for more in 2026, Harris was up against Canby senior Dmitrii Ganovichev in the final, a league foe who Harris lost to twice in the regular season.
The third time was the charm against Ganovichev however as Harris won in straight sets 7-6 (3), 6-1 to regain the individual crown.
Not only that, but the Falcons were trailing Crescent Valley by half a point in the team race and needed Harris to win in order to repeat as team state champions.
“One of my coaches sent me some interviews of Rafael Nadal post-match, and that really helped my mindset,” Harris said. “Going into it 0-2 against him, and having that pressure of if I win this my team wins, it was pretty tough. But that really helped, I was just thinking about myself instead of my results affecting other people.”
Facing a set point in the first, Harris was able to battle back and eventually take it via a 7-3 tiebreaker win.
From there, Harris was able to impose his will and close out the match in the second by keeping his composure and focusing on one point at a time.
“(Harris) won the first set (against Ganovichev) in the last match and lost the next two,” La Salle Prep head coach Quyen Wong said. “This one, I don’t think he was thinking ahead, he was just in the moment.”
“I feel like the thing I learned was keeping composure,” Harris said of what he learned from the first two matches with Ganovichev. “He’s a very tricky player, very good player. I knew the crowd would be there so I was trying to tell myself to focus on the court.”
La Salle Prep closed out its third consecutive state crown and fifth in program history thanks to Harris’ win, a fact he said he was trying to block out all match.
The team effort was aided by cousins Lucas and Nolan Wong on the doubles side after the duo made the semifinals before falling. However, they came back to win the third place match to allow the opportunity for Harris’ match to be the deciding factor.
“I thought we were mathematically out of it,” Quyen Wong, the father of Nolan Wong and uncle of Lucas Wong, said. “That was a crazy match (in the doubles third place match). They had three match points in the second set to win the match, but lost it and went to the third set. Down 3-0 (in the third set) and came back and won.
“Everything was heart-pounding, it was nervousness, anxiousness, all that. I was pacing and probably got 80,000 steps today.”
The Falcons won the team crown with 13 points while Crescent Valley took second with 11.5. Corvallis finished in third with 10 and Wilsonville took fourth with seven.
Powering the Corvallis run were the 5A doubles champions in junior Grae Koller and sophomore Michael Greschner.
As the No. 1 seed, the duo were the team to beat and they cruised to the crown, dropping a total of 10 games in four matches and winning every set they played.
“The sportsmanship, (Koller) was helping me with my mental and where to hit it, my game and everything,” Greschner said of what it was like to play with Koller.
“We played back when we were 12 years old, (Greschner) used to be a lot better than me,” Koller said. “He stopped playing and then I dragged him back into it to play doubles this year.”
The recruitment paid off as the duo became just the second Corvallis tennis players to ever win a state crown, joining the 2006 doubles duo of Rusty Hand and Tom Kuenzil.
The two squared off with the No. 2 seed in seniors Wyatt Windsheimer and Layne Wettstein out of Wilsonville.
Koller and Greschner made quick work of the match, winning 6-1, 6-1 to bring home the title and power the Spartans to third as a team.
“We just came out with big serves, try to keep them on their feet and push the ball at the net,” Koller said. “When they came to the net, we would just hit big balls in the middle.”
“We started aggressive and kept the same energy throughout the entire match,” Greschner said.
4A/3A/2A/1A
Oregon Episcopal didn’t send any singles players to state, but the Aardvarks had four doubles pairs at the 4A/3A/2A/1A tournament held at Oregon State University.
Those doubles duos got the job done as the Aardvarks ran away with the team title with 27 points. Catlin Gabel took second with 18, St. Mary’s Medford took third with 17 and Marist Catholic finished in fourth with eight.
OES senior Theo Freres and sophomore Lachlan Oei-Johnson were the No. 1 seed and looked the part by not dropping a set in their four match wins, only dropping a total of nine games altogether as well.
The duo had to take out two sets of teammates to get there, beating senior Stewart Young and sophomore Madan Deshmukh in the semifinals 6-0, 6-2, and then seniors Mason Do and Ishaan Bhardwaj in the final 6-3, 6-0.
Young and Deshmukh won the third place match as well, giving OES the top three doubles teams in the tournament.
In the singles tournament, there was also a teammate showdown in the title match with Catlin Gabel junior Zareh Gonzalvo taking down freshman Kai Stone 6-3, 6-4.
Gonzalvo, the top seed, cruised through the bracket, dropping only three games total before the final match with Stone. The freshman, seeded No. 3, also dominated in his run with only three games lost total before running into Gonzalvo.
austinw@osaa.org
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