Strength in numbers added up to an 11th consecutive provincial banner for the Edison Eagles.
Edison’s eight-athlete contingent extended the school’s tradition of excellence with a 46-point showing to run away with the 1A team banner at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association Provincial Badminton Championships May 5-6 in Lloydminster.
“For me, it really was a huge motivator,” said Edison Grade 10 student Eli Hernandez. “Because Edison’s reputation is really known for badminton.
“It feels great, I’ve always wanted to get a provincial banner ever since last year I’ve been thinking about it.”
Hernandez teamed up with Mia Carlson to form a formidable duo in the junior mixed doubles competition.
“There’s not real pressure, no one is forcing you to do well,” Carlson said. “It’s more self-inflicted pressure because we want to live up to the Edison name and do as well as we can.
“It’s more about the experience than winning (in doubles). Winning would be great, but there is so many high-level people and provincially-ranked so to win a game and even just to go there was a huge honour.”
The two have been doubles partners for two years and bring a unique team chemistry and shared abilities to the court.
“Because we have the height advantage, we can cover most of the court,” Carlson added. “And we both try to encourage each other and don’t get down when we aren’t doing as well.”
In the junior boys doubles event, the duo of Efe Koksal and Ben Zwanepoel advanced to the bronze medal game and earned a fourth-place finish.
Koksal said it was valuable to gain insight on how the competition levels up beyond the divisional and regional level.
There were opportunities to win the bronze medal if not for a couple simple mistakes, he added.
“We’ve been playing badminton for a long time,” Koksal said. “I've been playing since Grade 7 and (Ben) has been doing it almost his whole life and I think we have pretty good chemistry and the height for it as well.”
Edison’s Saffi Malmqvist-Lund advanced to the quarterfinal round in the junior girls singles event in her debut on the provincial stage.
“I trained a lot beforehand and I had a good attitude going into it,” said Malmqvist-Lund. “I just pushed through, kept going and tried my hardest.
“I’ve been to some Badminton Alberta tournaments so I saw some of the same people so that was pretty cool and it was neat to go from divisionals to zones to provincials and to keep going up those levels.”
Grade 12 Xander Zwanepoel took home the lone individual medal for the school in the senior boys singles event.
Zwanepoel, one of three Edison athletes returning from the triumphant 2022 provincials, edged Strathcona-Tweedsmuir's Jacob Gau to claim the bronze medal.
As a team, Edison finished seventh in the overall points standings independent of classification.
Among 1A schools, the Eagles’ 46 points was nearly four times as many as their next closest competitor.
“It means a lot,” Malmqvist-Lund added. “Especially that I helped towards the banner and that’s really special to know that I helped with that.”
It was also a banner weekend for the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans in Lloydminster.
The Spartans took home the 2A provincial banner with 32 points, good for 12th overall among all schools at the competition.
STS was represented at provincials with six athletes in Gau, Avinash Murthy, Ella Bird, Ava Carlson and Kadam Veer.
Murthy won silver in intermediate boys singles with Bird and Carlson combining to win bronze in the senior girls doubles competition along with a fourth-place finish from Gau in the senior boys singles event.
For more information on the event, visit asaa.ca/championships.
