Local team falls short of medals in badminton championships

A winning record did not spell a medal for the local mixed doubles team of Emmalee Barbeau and Will Agnihotri of St Benedict's, the local representatives who came closest to reaching the podium at the 2015 OFSAA Badminton Championships in Markham.

Making a second straight appearance at OFSAA, the Barbeau/Agnihotri tandem racked up four wins and three losses, bowing out in round three of the "B" consolation grouping.

The locals started well enough, beating Monique Fernandez/Brendan Mair (LOSSA) and Shelley Yin/Vincent Tan (ROPSSAA), before being knocked out of the "A" pool by Carol Hu/Darren Lui (CISAA).

Their stay in the "B" category was much more short-lived, suffering a "one and out" at the hands of Michelle Mei/Jimmy Zhu (TDSSAA). From there, a bit of a winning streak in "B" consolation play, getting the better of both Agatha Driedger/Frank Driedger (SWOSSAA) and Kelly Duan/Martin Chan (TDSSAA), before being eliminated in round three by Jasmine Yu/Justin Park.

In ladies singles action, Michelle Kozlowskyj of Sacré-Coeur came close to reaching the .500 mark overall, picking up a pair of victories against three defeats.

Like her teammates with the Sudbury Junior Badminton Club, Kozlowskyj opened on a winning note, besting Emilie Menard of La Citadelle in Cornwall. In tough against the #2 seed in the women's draw, Kozlowskyj fell to Kelly Carter of Corpus Christi in Hamilton, knocked switfly out of "B" contention by Grace Xu of the Waterloo Collegiate Institute.

The Northern Ontario teenager then survived round one of "B" consolation play, taking down Madeline Keller (YRAA), before being sent packing by Victoria Duong of Forest Heights Collegiate Institute in Kitchener.

Sebastien Stefankow of Sacré-Coeur managed to also pick up a pair of wins at OFSAA, though both against the same opponent. The grade 11 senior kicked things off with a win over Eric Hammer of Nouvelle-Alliance in Barrie, but losing back to back matches to Poy Lo of Toronto (#1 seed) and Chris Wu of A.N. Myer in Niagara Falls.

Now in the "C" quarter-finals, Stefankow again got the better of Hammer, but dropped his semi-final contest to Joseph Choi of Eastdale Secondary School in Welland. Stefankow closed out his first trek to OFSAA with a loss to Chris Bechard of Chatham-Kent.

Finally, the Lockerby men's doubles team of Blake Wisniewski and Bradley Sheppard garnered some valuable experience, even if wins were tough to come by. A loss to Justin Lim/Samuel Wong (ROPSSAA) was followed by their only taste of victory, beating Fabien Martel/Raphael Hawey-Deshaies (NEOAA).

Three straight losses would mean the end of the line for the Vikes pairing, as Mikale Gaumond/Mathieu Brunet (EOSSAA), Caleb Schmidt/Curtis Balentyne (COSSA) and Tommy Lam/Robert Nguyen (YRAA) all outpointed the locals.