Fifth banner for St. Mary’s badminton

By Nikki Jamieson and Greg Price
Taber Times

The St. Mary’s Junior Badminton team brought home the 3J Zone Banner after the zone tournament in Medicine Hat.

They won the banner with 113 points – the second highest total of all the teams that were there competing. It also marks the fifth year in a row that St. Mary’s wins the Zone Banner.

“I’m quite excited that we won the banner,” said Derry Kolody, badminton coach for St. Mary’s. “I’m just tickled pink. It’s about everybody that goes to zones, just trying to put together wins and every team who won accumulates points to go towards that banner. Even if you don’t win a medal, you’re still contributing to the success of the team. I think it’s pretty cool, that everybody has a part to play in that big banner.”

The following are the results of the St. Mary’s badminton placement in zones; Alyssa Pavka received silver in girl singles, Max Nevil and Ty Kiss got bronze in boys doubles, Trista Duncan and Rachel Gouw placed fourth in girls doubles, Jack Murphy placed forth in boys singles, Emmanuel Adra and Dallas Bodnar received Gold in midget boys doubles, Kenzie Pyne and Seth Muller placed fourth in mixed doubles, Krysten French placed fifth in girls singles and Carl Rodrigo and Spencer Phillips received Gold in Juvenile boys doubles.

In St. Mary’s High School badminton, Landon French and Tyson Phillips concluded a solid three weeks, in which they captured gold medals in district competition and then followed up with a gold medal in the south zone tournament. With the zone win, the duo attended the high school provincial championships in Edmonton where they captured a bronze medal in the “B” category.

St. Mary’s had a great result in the high school district badminton tournament back on April 20 as all teams advanced to zone completions. The results continued to be positive as eight players qualified for provincial competition.

The team was led by a gold medal from the intermediate doubles team of French and Phillips at zones. Kaleb Muller won silver in intermediate singles. Rae Anne Vayro and Andrew Meisner advanced with a silver medal win in intermediate mixed doubles. Jobert Cruz won silver in junior singles and Christine Agravante and Guianne Rodrigo won silver in girls doubles to advance to provincials. The St. Mary’s team accumulated 79 team points, third highest total out of all zone schools and captured the 2A Zone team banner.

“We have been blessed with a wonderful coaching staff that begins working with student athletes in Grade 6 and continues throughout high school. Congratulations to Derry Kolody, Renaldo Payongayong and the past years of coaching from Rylan Spenrath that greatly impacted our current program. These individuals have volunteered countless hours to support our program and we greatly appreciate their work”, said Randy Spenrath, principal at St. Mary’s School.