POULSBO — After getting upset last year in the Olympic League boys tennis tournament title match, Sequim’s Garrett Little made sure there was no doubt this year, winning the league championship without losing a set during the entire tournament this weekend.
Little, who is also the defending West Central District III champion, was second at state last spring and was third at state in 2022, moves on as a top seed to the district tournament this weekend in Bremerton.
Little beat Sean Goodman of North Mason 6-0, 6-0 and Austin Worthington of Port Angeles 6-0, 6-0 to get into the league semifinals. In the semis, he had his one somewhat tough match of the weekend, beating Dayshawn Harper of North Kitsap 7-6, 6-1. He went on to beat Indigo Gallagher-Zapf, also of North Kitsap, in the finals 6-1, 6-1.
Meanwhile, Port Angeles will send two doubles teams to district.
Port Angeles brought three singles players and three doubles teams to the tournament as the doubles team of Luke Flodstrom and Tate Alton had the best showing, going 4-2 over the weekend to finish fourth.
Due to the depth of the Riders’ doubles teams, Flodstrom and Tate ended up playing teammates Reid Schmidt and Keatyn Hoch, and Nathan Basden and Matthew Miller. Basden and Miller went 3-2 in the tournament to finish fifth and qualify for district. The team of Flodstrom/Tate beat Basden/Miller 6-3, 6-4 and beat Schmidt/Hoch 7-5, 6-2.
“It’s been a pretty special year for us going 12-2 in the regular season and getting two doubles teams to districts after graduating eight seniors last year,” said coach Brian Gundersen. “I’m looking forward to a great week of practice and I think Luke, Tate, Nathan and Matthew have a chance to be very successful next weekend.”
Also competing for the Riders were singles players CJ Elliott, Austin Worthington and Grant Butterworth. Elliott made it to the consolation semifinals with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Jack Crecilius of Sequim and a 6-2, 2-6, 10-4 win over Rocco Targett of North Kitsap. Worthington also made it to the consolation quarters with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over Targett and a 7-5, 6-0 win over Cam Guess of Olympic.
The Sequim duos of Tom Laschaet/William Hughes and Hunter Tennell/Sebastian Buhner each made it to the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket. Tennell and Buhner beat Levi Caldwell and Dylan Williams of Olympic 6-3, 6-2 while Laschaet and Hughes beat Riley Leibold and Aiden Matteson of Kingston 6-3, 6-3.
