HAMILTON, Ont. - The top badminton players and coach in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) were honoured Friday morning as part of the 2018 OCAA Badminton Championships presented by belairdirect being hosted by Mohawk College.
First-year student-athlete Yuge Zeng (China) was named OCAA Men's Badminton Player of the Year. Zeng was undefeated in men's singles play at the East Regionals, sweeping all five games by the average set score of 21-12. Zeng helped lead George Brown to a share of its first men's regional title since 2012. Zeng is an OCAA All-Star, a Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) All-Canadian, and a nominee for the National Men's Player of the Year.
Second-year player Chloe Rowe (Newcastle) was named OCAA Women's Badminton Player of the Year. One-half of the reigning OCAA and CCAA women's doubles gold medalists, Rowe teamed up with partner and fellow OCAA All-Star Elizabeth Duong (Mississauga) to go undefeated at the West Regionals, sweeping all six of their matches by an average set score of 21-5. Rowe is also a CCAA All-Canadian, and a nominee for the National Women's Player of the Year.
George Brown's Will Schram is the OCAA Coach of the Year. He helped guide both of men's and women's teams to East Regional titles, a first for the women's program. Six of Schram's student-athletes were named OCAA All-Stars, including Zeng, women's singles player Ann Hoang (Vietnam), men's doubles players Alex Chao (Ottawa) and Yang Jin (Toronto), and women's doubles players Yunji Kim (Togo) and Angeline Alviar (Toronto).
All OCAA All-Stars finished in first place at their respective regionals in their respective disciplines. Also named OCAA All-Stars were Centennial's Chirag Dave (India) and Taylor Liou (Toronto); Fanshawe's Riley Hogan (Sault Ste. Marie) and Sahil Sahil (India); Humber's Cameron Lai (Mississauga), Crystal Qu (China), Darcy Schmidt (Halliburton) and Arpit Teneja (India); and St. Clair's Henry Andkilde (Windsor).
Team champions from regionals were also honoured. Along with the aforementioned George Brown, Humber won both men's and women's titles at West Regionals, while Centennial shared men's honours at East Regionals.
2017-18 OCAA BADMINTON MAJOR AWARDS
OCAA Men's Player of the Year
Yuge Zeng, George Brown
OCAA Women's Player of the Year
Chloe Rowe, Humber
OCAA Coach of the Year
Will Schram, George Brown
OCAA Regional Men's Team Champions
East: Centennial and George Brown
West: Humber
OCAA Regional Women's Team Champions
East: George Brown
West: Humber
OCAA All-Stars
Angeline Alviar, George Brown
Henry Andkilde, St. Clair
Alex Chao, George Brown
Chirag Dave, Centennial
Elizabeth Duong, Humber
Ann Hoang, George Brown
Riley Hogan, Fanshawe
Yang Jin, George Brown
Yunji Kim, George Brown
Cameron Lai, Humber
Taylor Liou, Centennial
Crystal Qu, Humber
Chloe Rowe, Humber
Sahil Sahil, Fanshawe
Darcy Schmidt, Humber
Arpit Teneja, Humber
Yuge Zeng, George Brown
- OCAA -
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The Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) is the recognized leader in intercollegiate athletics in the province, dedicated to student-athlete and sport development. The OCAA has 29 members sponsoring 12 varsity sports.
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Ontario Colleges Athletic Association
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E-mail: bell-webster@ocaa.com