The Varsity Blues badminton team travelled to Hamilton, Ont., on Saturday, October 16 for matches versus the Waterloo Warriors and host McMaster Marauders.

The Blues roster, which included six rookies, faired well.  Toronto went 16-14 versus McMaster and 8-14 versus the Warriors.

Rookie Fiona McKee went undefeated on the day.  She and fellow first-year Jewel Ho won the doubles event convincingly, defeating both Waterloo teams that they faced.  The duo won the final match versus OUA all-star Amanda Carruthers and Ingrid Liu 21-13, 21-17 to capture the title.

In men’s doubles, rookie Andrew Wilkinson paired with Cody Wong to finish second overall.  The pair came up with  a huge win against Waterloo’s No. 2 doubles team 21-11, 21-17 and put for a very strong match against Nathan Lee and Wesley Marr (Waterloo), eventually falling in two sets.

In mixed doubles, Wilkinson and McKee won both their matches convincingly and certainly turned heads.

Wilkinson advanced to the semi finals in men’s singles after a strong performance in his qualifying pool, falling to the eventual champion Andrew Zhuang 21-17, 21-13 to finish third.

Cody Wong reached the men’s singles B championship final and played really well despite losing to Waterloo’s Nathan Leung 21-19, 16-21 8-21. Similarly, Christl Cheng was strong in her singles matches as she finished second in the B flight and had a great win against Warriors Victoria Leung  along the way, 21-14, 21-7.

Other notable performances came from rookies Junjie Zhang and Jonathan Young in mized doubles as well as Susan Mok  in women’s doubles.

The Varsity Blues return to the court this Saturday, October 22 as they host the T.R.Y. (Toronto-Ryerson-York) Challenge at the Athletic Centre Sports Gym.

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