OFSAA badminton drought continues 

  No Elgin County qualifiers at senior WOSSAA for 15th consecutive year

 April 27, 2023

Hometownplay.ca 

STRATFORD, Ont. -  The OFSAA drought continues for Elgin County schools in badminton.

It now has been 15 years since a singles player or doubles team has qualified for the provincial high school championships.

Titans' girls doubles duo of Emma Westbrook and Rebecca Nurton, had the best result for the TVRA South-East Division,  placing seventh with a 2-2 record.

Parkside Stampeders' boys doubles team of Ryan Willmore and Bryce Hampton, tied for ninth with a 1-2 record.

St. Joe's mixed doubles pair of Cody Johnson and Elise Donaghy, lost to Oakridge and then Saunders, the eventual silver and bronze medal teams.

Parkside's Emelie Dlouhy in girls singles and Titans' Liam Miskelly in boys singles, both were 0-2.

Titans' boys doubles team of Brandon Dews and Brady Hunter and East Elgin Eagles mixed doubles pair of Ellery Beilhartz and Hunter Norris, both were winless in two matches.

Dorchester's girls doubles team of Jocelyn Pollard and Emily Devine, had two close matches, losing a 24-22 game in each match, but finished 0-2.

London Central won girls doubles, boys singles and was second in boys doubles.

Last time St. Thomas was represented at OFSAA was in 2009, when Central Elgin Titans mixed doubles team of Kari Huras and Brian Duquette won a bronze medal. The pair finished third, after dropping a marathon gold medal match, two games to one, the third game in extra points, to Stefanie and Ryan Lau. Exhausted, the Titans fell in a challenge match for silver, to Jasmine Fan and Oliver Chow.

That same year Glencoe's Shawn Bogart and Kelly Grant won C flight in mixed doubles at OFSAA. It was the Bogart's third of three consecutive trips to OFSAA in mixed doubles, with three different partners. Kelly Wills and Emily Paterson were Bogart's first two partners.

In 2012, Glencoe's boys doubles team of Greg Gosnell and Nick Moxam qualified for OFSAA.

    WOSSAA top two (OFSAA qualifiers)

Girls Singles

1.  Sumi Sinha (London Clarke Road)
2.  Nora Chen (London Oakridge)

Girls Doubles

1.  Anika Guo & Joanna Wang (London Central)
2.  Ella Shen & Cindy Zhu (London Lucas)

Mixed Doubles

1.  Ella Koch & Mark Barton (Stratford District)
2.  Vanessa Eng & Charlie Shi (Oakridge)

Boys Singles (3 qualifiers)

1.  Alex Li (London Central)
2.  Levi Nyenhuis (Stratford St. Mike's)
3.  Rasper Reyes (London John Paul 2)

Boys Doubles

1.  Sardhan Rai & Kien Quach (London Montcalm)
2.  Arnav Papreja & Vincent Xie (London Central)