Both Bonnyville high schools will have representatives at the badminton zone championships next month, after several players qualified at districts this past Thursday.
Bonnyville Centralized High School (BCHS) had three singles players and a mixed doubles team qualify for zones, while Notre Dame High School (NDHS) will send a boys doubles team and a mixed doubles team to next month's tournament.
Assumption Jr./Sr. High School and Cold Lake High School (CLHS) hosted the senior high district championships.
The tournament used a round robin format followed by playoffs. To qualify for zones, single players had to finish first or second place at districts, while doubles players had to finish first overall.
Qualifying from BCHS were Luz Dagman (second in junior girls), Kyle Corbiel (second in junior boys) and Tanner Corbiel (first in intermediate boys). Randy Erickson and Katie Davis from BCHS also qualified for zones after winning intermediate mixed doubles at districts.
NDHS will send the junior boys doubles team of Mitchell Hebert and Steenn Pasichnuk, and the senior mixed team of Laura Dokter and Cody Presten to zones.
After winning their final match and qualifying for zones Presten was pretty impressed with the way his team played.
"I was a little nervous going into the tournament," said Presten. "Then we won our first game and built some confidence."
He said his partner kept him focused and did a great job on the court. "She definitely played pretty good and made some really good pickups."
Heading into zones, Presten likes his team's chances but doesn't want to get ahead of himself. He said they will just try to carry some of the momentum from districts into zones.
Zones will also be hosted by Assumption and CLHS. The tournament takes place May 2.
Assumption teacher and one of the organizers of districts, Jason Kozlow, said everything went well at districts this year.
"This was one of our most attended district tournaments," said Kozlow. "It's good to see how it all works before we host zones."
After competing at districts in St. Paul this past Wednesday, four players from Glendon School have qualified for zones in Cold Lake.
Darcy Kwiatkowski won gold in intermediate girls singles, while Jillian Mulvey picked up silver in senior girls singles. Glendon swept the senior boys singles, with Dana White picking up gold and Colton Witwicky taking home silver.
"To me, I think badminton is one of the hardest sports to make it in," said Glendon School athletic director Daryn Galatiuk. "But I think all of them have a good chance at zones."
