It was a great weekend of badminton competition around Saskatchewan this past weekend as athletes vied for a spot in SHSAA provincials this coming weekend in Estevan. Regional competitions were held in four different locations, with the top two finishers earning the right to advance to the final bracket.
The only local team to move on came out of Wilkie's McLurg School. Wilkie's girls' double team of Suchan and Leinenweber finished 2-1 in the group stage with wins over Turtleford and Kindersley to earn a spot in the final bracket.
In the playoff round Wilkie faced a fellow 2-1 finisher in St. Walburg and moved on after a dominating 21-8 score in the first game, and 21-18 squeaker in Game 2 to place them in the finals against undefeated Aden Bowman, who Wilkie lost to in straight sets during pool play.
In the rematch, the Aden Bowman duo of Jain and Zhao beat Suchan and Leinenweber 21-7, and 21-17 to take the regional title and send the Wilkie team into provincials with a lower seed.
Two more Wilkie teams made a run at provincials.
Other action at Walter Murray Collegiate saw the boys' doubles team of Cey and Sittler losing in the semifinals to the eventual champions of Li and Zhang from Evan Hardy. Cey and Sittler instead fell into the bronze medal match where they faced Pelican Lake's team of Ross and Waskewitch. Splitting wins in the first two games, Wilkie's duo came out on top with a dominant 21-6 win in the third game.
Another Wilkie team, Cey and Tatton, made it into the final four in mixed doubles. They lost two close games against Walter Murray to fall into the bronze medal game where they lost two out of three games to finish fourth.
While nobody was able to match Wilkie in advancing past the group stage, it was still a great weekend of competition and experience for future events. Around 15 more local teams were in play in their respective brackets throughout the boys' and girls' divisions as you can find those results below.
The SHSAA badminton season only has one event left, provincials in Estevan this weekend.