North Oldham swept the boys and girls singles and doubles championships en route to a pair of team titles at the Eighth Region tournament on May 15-17 at Collins.

“They’re just good players. They’re dedicated – they go in the offseason and take lessons and play tournaments year-round. We’re lucky like that,” NOHS coach Todd Arterburn said. “With the girls, this was one of our more challenging years because Oldham County is young and has some really nice players. … With the boys, I felt we were just deeper than everybody else. We knew we were going to get our points, and there wasn’t going to be a really close runner up because everybody else was pretty close together and was going to split the rest of the points.”

All 12 Mustangs that competed in the tournament reached the semifinals to qualify for the state tournament.

Sam Gurevich won the boys singles title over teammate Luke Colson.

“They both should be seeds at state,” Arterburn said. “I would imagine Sam will get a five seed, and hopefully Luke fills in there as a nine seed because they seed in groups after the eighth seed.”

Third-seeded Erekle Chubinidze and Merrick McLeod took home the boys doubles title over Oldham County’s Avery Thomas and Grant Fields after the latter beat NOHS’ No. 1 doubles team, Jeremie Park and Nicolas Ajkay in the semifinals.

“It’s surprising that (Chubinidze and McLeod) won it, but that’s very good. They played very well,” Arterburn said. “Park and Ajkay got beat by a very good Oldham County team.”

Bailey Scott captured the girls singles championship, and teammate Kaylin Frazier reached the semifinals before falling to Oldham County’s Hailey Klein.

“Bailey Scott beat Hailey Klein and Laurel Slechter from Oldham County, which are two other really nice players in this region. Bailey is just so good – she’s a five star player and is only an eighth grader,” Arterburn said. “They’re loaded on the girls side in singles at state. Bailey has a chance to win – she’s playing great – but there’s a ton of competition. The top eight players will be Division I at some point, including Bailey.”

Reagan Mangan and Willow Renton rolled past teammates Claire Morris and Adeline Masters in the girls doubles finals. 

“(Mangan and Renton) won very easily. They only gave up three games in the entire tournament,” Arterburn said. “Claire and Adeline were seeded No. 3, but the two seed got eliminated in the quarterfinals, so we beat the team that beat the No. 2 seed in the semifinals. … I’m hoping both teams will be seeded at the state tournament.”

Mangan and Renton won the state doubles title in 2021 before the latter moved out of state for a year. The duo will likely enter the state tournament as the top seed and the favorites to run the table.

“You never know what the KHSAA is going to do, but they should be seeded No. 1 going into the state tournament,” Arterburn said. “They’re former champions, and they have the highest (universal tennis ratings) going in by a couple points when you combine them, and they’re older as juniors and seniors.”

Oldham County

Oldham County took second place behind their county rivals in both the boys and girls tournaments and will send five players total to the state tournament. 

“That’s the most players I’ve ever had going to state in my five years of coaching. As a team, our girls finished second to North Oldham last year as well, but the boys team really pulled through to get second place this year,” OCHS coach Kim Klein said. “I was thrilled. It boosts some confidence for both parts of our team. Usually we’re chasing other teams, but now teams are chasing us.”

Hailey Klein reached the girls singles finals before falling to Scott. Scott downed OCHS’ Laurel Slechter in the previous round.

Klein and Slechter were the top seed in last year’s state tournament as doubles partners and reached the finals before dropping a third-set tiebreaker for the title.

“I just wanted to give them the experience and opportunity to be able to play singles. Good players can play both,” Kim Klein said. “I thought it was important for them to go that route this year to get some visibility playing singles and establish their own identity. They had a great regional tournament.”

Ryan Hawkins reached the semifinals of the boys singles tournament before losing to Colson.

Thomas and Fields beat North Oldham’s Park and Ajkay but lost to the Mustangs’ duo of Chubinidze and McLeod in the championship.

“It’s a night and day difference of confidence from the regular season to the postseason,” Klein said of the boys results. “The doubles team is gelling together. The singles player is being patient and grinding it out.”

State tournament

The county will have 17 representatives at the state tournament, which is set to take place from May 30 to June 1 at Top Seed Tennis Club in Nicholasville, Ky.

The KHSAA will seed 16 players in each tournament later this week.