George Brown College captures four gold and one bronze medal at OCAA East Regional

The best word to describe the Huskies’ performance at the OCAA East Regional championship is simply, dominant.

Head Coach Will Schram’s crew put on a show at Centennial College, winning four gold medals and adding a bronze. Yuge (Ace) Zeng (men’s singles), Anh Hoang (women’s singles), Yang Jin and Alex Chao (men’s doubles), and Yunji Kim and Angeline Alviar (women’s doubles) all punched their tickets to the OCAA Championships with their regional titles. Mike Ra and Amy Ding also qualified for the provincial tournament via their third place showing in the mixed doubles.

Zeng continued his outstanding season, never dropping a game in yet another tournament victory. Things tightened up in the second game of the final, as Schram said Zeng “let up a little bit”, but in the end, secured the gold.

Hoang also never lost a game compiling a perfect 5-0 record on the way to the women’s singles crown. Jin and Chao continued the spotless trend, racking up five straight wins in taking home top honours in men’s doubles while Kim and Alviar teamed up for a 2-0 mark in their women’s doubles victory. Ra and Ding finished in a three-way tie at 3-1 with Centennial and Seneca in the mixed doubles, but placed third after the tie-breaker.

As far as Schram is concerned the team met his high expectations.

“Overall, I was just very pleased with all the training that the kids put together and then today, a fantastic performance,” said Schram. “The entire team is going to provincials. It’s going to be great.”

The next step is the OCAA Championships at Mohawk on Feb. 16 to 17 where the top two finishers in each discipline will earn a berth at the CCAA Championships in Edmonton.

With Centennial and Seneca being the other top contenders emerging from the East, Humber is considered the top threat from the West. The Hawks are coming off a great showing in the West regional, claiming the men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles events. Humber also added third-place finishes in men’s and women’s singles.

While Schram says his team has “a very good chance in every single discipline” at the provincials, he is aware of the key battleground that awaits.

“The biggest test is going to be women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Humber has two really strong teams in those events. I feel pretty confident that in the other disciplines that our team does have the upper hand and hopefully they play well that day.”

After the OCAA Championships, the badminton season concludes with the CCAA Championships, hosted by the University of Edmonton on Feb. 28 to March 3.