Two team banners, eight individual titles for NKEC at badminton provincials

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Northeast Kings Education Centre capped an outstanding school badminton season with another dominant performance at the NSSAF provincial championships April 18-19 at Citadel High in Halifax.

NKEC, which had scored well in individual and team competition at the district and regional levels, captured the junior and senior team titles at provincials as well as winning eight of 15 individual disciplines.

The Northeast Kings Badminton Club, of which all the NKEC competitiors are members, also picked up a ninth provincial individual title, won by Horton student Justin Barkhouse in senior boys’ singles.

The NKEC team of Tineke Vanderweit (girls’ singles), Ashlin Warner (boys’ singles), Sarah Bennett and Gillian Tetlow (girls’ doubles), Alex Caldwell and Max Beveridge (boys’ doubles), Melissa Rafuse and Louis Pearson (mixed doubles) placed first in the junior team competition at provincials.

The talented NKEC senior team of Jacobi Vanderweit, Logan Coffill, Mishelle Melvin and Christine Manning, Ian Manning and Blake Brown, Jenny McGinis and Paul Manning also reprised its victories at the district and regional level.

The NKEC intermediate team finished round robin play in a three-way tie and missed out on a chance to advance to medal play based on point differential.

In the individual competition, Tineke Vanderweit won the junior girls’ singles, Louis Pearson the junior boys’ singles and Sarah Bennett and Gillian Tetlow the junior girls’ doubles, positioning NKEC for continued success for at least the next four years.

Laura Roy of NKEC won the intermediate girls’ singles and Claire MacDougall and Joe Harper the intermediate mixed doubles. All have at least two more years of school play.

At the senior level, in addition to the win by Barkhouse, Jacobi Vanderweit won the girls’ singles, Mishelle Melvin and Christine Manning the girls’ doubles and Blake Brown and Ian Manning the boys’ doubles. Jenny McGinis and Paul Manning settled for bronze medals in senior mixed doubles.

This year’s NKEC senior team has been consistently at or near the top provincially since they were all juniors. And with Jacobi Vanderweit the only one graduating this year, it looks like NKEC might be just as dominant in the senior division in 2009.