Olds Koinonia Christian School badminton players did well at the Chinook's Edge South Athletic Association Grade 7 and 8 badminton tournament at the Community Learning Campus on Wednesday. The OKCS students were among over 100 players from schools around Mountain View County that participated in the event.
Sydney Wood and Lauren Evans placed second in the Grade 7 girls' doubles while Kayla Jansen and Seth Colby won the mixed doubles. Janelle Graham placed second in the Grade 8 girls' singles while Ethan Moenech and Spencer Parrott won the Grade 8 boys' doubles.
“I wanted to get as many kids out as I could, just trying to get the numbers up as much as possible,” said Ken Terpstra, coach of the OKCS badminton team.
Sam Stachuk of Deer Meadow School won the Grade 8 girls' singles while Kiera Davidson and Jenna Weseen placed second in the Grade 8 girls' doubles and Baylen Unger and Chantal Speelman placed second in the Grade 8 mixed doubles.
“It was a really good effort by a lot of our kids. We had a strong group of Grade 8s who showed really strong,” said Jeff Clattenburg, DMS badminton coach.
Clattenburg said DMS has had a strong student response to all of its sports offerings.
“We had probably close to 30 kids per grade level that were coming out to practices and trying out to see who went to (the tournament),” he said, noting the strongest 10 players from each grade attended the meet.
Holy Trinity School also had four players at the tournament but none of them placed in the top 2 of their divisions. All of the players placing in the top 2 earned a spot to the zone tournament in Strathmore on Friday. The zone tournament will also take in Grade 9 players.
As for the Grade 11 and 12 students from Olds who went to the zone championship in Airdrie last Tuesday, Sara Odersky of Olds High School finished second in the Grade 12 girls' singles and will be attending the provincial championships in Grimshaw Wedneday through Friday. April Onishenko Olds Koinonia Christian School finished fourth in the same category.
Janessa Fehr and Lukas Grasse of OKCS finished fourth in Grade 12 mixed doubles in Airdrie while Jaimee Sheehan and Lindsay Worrall of OKCS finished fourth in Grade 11 girls doubles.
"It was a really good effort by a lot of our kids. We had a strong group of Grade 8s who showed really strong."Jeff Clattenburg, DMS badminton coach
