St. Paul Regional High School is sending 17 athletes to zones in Fort McMurray after it won the SPAA badminton championship banner last week.
The Saints hosted the tournament on Wednesday afternoon and took first place in nine categories. All of the athletes who came first and second in the singles competition are going to zones.
“All the schools around here are really good so it’s hard to predict anything going into these finals,” Saints coach Corey deMoissac said after the tournament. “There were a few kids disappointed that they weren’t advancing, but the St. Paul area for all sports is tough to get out of.”
In the junior boys singles event, Morgan Lavallee from Two Hills finished first and Mikael Beaudoin from École du Sommet finished in second. On the girls side, Regional’s Teisha Ouellette came in first and Josie Picquette from École du Sommet second.
Chelsea Enriquez from Regional finished first in intermediate girls singles while Two Hills’ Alyssa Shapka earned second. For the intermediate boys, Grayson Soprovich from Two Hills came in first and Jamison Wozniak from FG Miller in second.
Glendon’s Jessie Witwicky won the senior boys singles event while Regional’s Jonathan Shapka came in second. Darcy Kwiatkowki, also from Glendon, finished first in senior girls singles and Sara Miller from Two Hills came in second.
Only those who finished first in the doubles events qualified for zones, which will take place this Friday with the provincials following next week in Grimshaw.
Two Hills School cleaned up in the junior doubles event with Claudia Wakulchuyk and Bailey Shandro winning for the girls’ side and Skyler Kitz and Zack Zaparniuk for the boys.
However, both the intermediate and seniors competitions for girls and boys were won by St. Paul. In intermediate, Krisya Yacyshynn and Leigha Bishop won for the girls and Sheldon Warchola and Alex Dargis finished first in boys.
Ben Quan and Jerome Cote finished first in senior boys doubles while Monique Gervais and Karli Hozjan won the girls doubles.
The Saints ruled again in the mixed doubles winning the junior, intermediate and senior events. Randi Drummond and Josh Bespalko won junior, Madi Novakowski and Brandyn Delisle won intermediate and Hailey Mahdiuk and Marc Dubeau took first in seniors.
