The districts of high school badminton were played out last Monday afternoon as at least five schools took part in Saskatchewan High Schools Athletics Association (SHSAA) badminton held at the Melville Comprehensive School.
Categories of play included: boys' singles, girls' singles, boys' doubles, girls' doubles and mixed doubles.
Among the local finishes, Darren Tillman of the Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS) placed second in boys' singles.
Brittany Brenzen placed second in girls' singles.
Tillman told the newspaper that he was hoping for first overall.
He beat Esterhazy and Sturgis but admitted was in tough against his third opponent who represented Canora.
"He was making all of his shots," said Tillman, adding that he "made me run".
Tillman said he is looking forward to regionals, which are scheduled to be held in his own gym at the YRHS.
"Yeah, I'm excited. It's here," he said.
Brenzen of the YRHS placed one spot below Kylie Chupa of the Sacred Heart Saints. Yorkton also dominated the boys' doubles category. Mark Kuemper and teammate Travis Inglis of Sacred Heart came out one better then Adam Stokes and Michael Lockhart of the YRHS. The latter two said they were hoping to at least advance to the upcoming regional competition to be held in Yorkton early in May; they all advanced to the regional.
Stokes and Lockhart, who have been playing a lot of badminton together over the past year-and-a-bit, both said that it was a competition they felt they could have come out on top in.
"We had a couple of missed shots," recalled Stokes.
"There's a few games where we thought we could win it."
Both agreed that Norquay gave them "a test," even though the locals came out on top in that best-of-three series, 2-1.
"At the end, it was kind of close," recalled Stokes who added that "the overall goal was regionals, number two was to get first place (at Melville).
It is going to be their first time competing at the regionals.
Rounding out the local placings from Melville was the Sacred Heart mixed doubles duo of Troy Waggoner and Bailee Skikewich.
YRHS JUNIORS
In York City junior badminton action held April 11, Graham Campbell and Eddie Schramm of the YRHS placed second in the boys' doubles category. Upcoming is the ECDAA District championship for juniors on May 3 at the YRHS. Start time is 10 a.m.
