Wilsonville’s J.J. Bartlett and Wyatt Windsheimer pushed it to the end.

So did fellow Wildcats Julia Tatsumi and Teagan Hamilton.

In the end, both doubles teams broke through to post solid finishes at the Northwest Oregon Conference district tennis tournament, and in the process, win berths to the Class 5A state tournament. The NWOC district tournament was held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, May 13-15, at Centennial and Parkrose high schools.

The Class 5A state tournament is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, May 23-24, at West Hills Racquet and Fitness Club and the Babette Horenstein Tennis Center.

Boys tournament

Bartlett, a senior, and Windsheimer, a junior, battled all the way into the championship of the doubles draw before finally falling to La Salle’s top-seeded freshman Lucas Wong and senior Jeffrey Boknecht 6-7, 6-2, 6-1.

“I am very happy with how (we) played overall,” Bartlett said. “We had some close matches but … we played well together and had a great time. Our main struggle in the finals was our energy. We came out well and won the first set, but it being the last match of the week, and playing a three-set match right before it, we slowed down quite a bit in the last two sets. However, I’m still happy with our performance and we would love to play them again in state.”

“I think J.J. and I played really well and did a great job overall dominating the courts for most of the tournament,” Windsheimer said. “We … tried our very hardest and gave every team the best that we could (and left) everything we got on the court.”

Over the course of the tournament, the third-seeded Windsheimer and Bartlett went 4-1 at district, winning their first three matches in straight sets before upsetting the second seeds in three sets in the semifinals.

Beyond their efforts, Wilsonville junior Layne Wettstein and senior teammate Sujan Sharak won three straight times and earned state berth before being ousted 6-0, 6-2 in the tournament quarterfinals by La Salle’s Wong and Boknecht.

Together, their efforts lifted the Wildcats to second in the team standings with 23 points; they trailed only district champion La Salle’s 42.

Girls tournament

In the NWOC girls district tourney, Wilsonville played its way to third place in the field of nine teams with 15.5 points; La Salle won the tournament championship with 39.5 points, while Hood River took second at 37.5.

Tatsumi, a senior, and Hamilton, a sophomore, made their mark in doubles, playing their way into the tournament semifinals and earning a berth to state. After winning their first three matches, they dropped a 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 decision to Hood River’s second-seeded seniors Jena Hager and Poppy Mooney in the semifinals.