George Brown badminton decided one year of making history wasn't quite enough on Saturday afternoon - after sweeping the men's and women's team provincial titles in 2018 for the program's first time, they put together an encore performance at UTM over the past two days. In the process, six Huskies have punched their tickets to the CCAA national badminton championship.
The top two finishers in each discipline earned a spot at the national championship, and the Huskies qualifiers include Anh Hoang, Ace Zeng, Alex Chao, Eric Kern, Angeline Alviar and Mike Ra. All will be headed out east to Dalhousie University from March 6-9 to compete for the title of best in Canada.
Anh Hoang went a perfect 7-0 to capture the women's singles title, not dropping a single set in two days and cruising to a 21-7, 21-9 finals win over Rachel Wong. It marks the second consecutive season that Hoang has earned the women's singles title. Hoang won silver at last years national championship.
Ace Zeng finished runner-up in men's singles play, reeling off six straight wins before dropping a tight finals match to Ramnish Kumar 21-14, 21-17. Zeng will return to nationals looking to improve on last seasons silver medal.
In men's doubles play Alex Chao and Eric Kern went 4-1 in round-robin play, then defeated Justin Wong and Yaoren Liang in the semi-finals to guarantee their spot at the national championship. After falling 21-7 in the finals opening set, they bounced back for a 22-20 second set win. Unfortunately, the pair would drop a hard-fought third and deciding set 21-18.
Angeline Alviar and Mike Ra capped the day with a mixed doubles title, defeating Jia Feng and Chirag Dave to seal the deal.
In total, George Brown earned two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze medal on the day.
The Huskies narrowly edged out Humber for both of the team titles, with George Brown's appearance in the mixed doubles finals ultimately pushing them over the top.
For full results from the OCAA Championship please visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rS6bOUGds5m5nv0V-mgFO3bAXKfxqASs42GU0YJrBCE/edit#gid=0
