Banner Season: Varsity Blues dominate in Oshawa to claim fourth consecutive badminton banner

Oshawa, Ont. – With a nearly perfect record over the weekend, the Toronto Varsity Blues won their fourth straight OUA badminton championship on Sunday afternoon, becoming the first program to do so since the championship format changed in 1997.

In the gold medal match Toronto defeated Waterloo 6-1.

“I’ve only been part of the last two years, but to it’s incredible (for a program to win four straight) because it’s never happened before that four straight years of a co-ed team has won badminton,” said Varsity Blues captain Marcus Waskiw-Ford.

Toronto went unbeaten throughout the championship, topping Group A with a 4-0 record before defeating the Western Mustangs 6-0 in the semifinal.

To start things off Katie Ho-Shue and Bethany So each won their women’s singles matches. Waterloo rebounded with Frankie Cao and Aaron Hsu defeating Andre Chan and Samson Chan in the first men’s doubles match.

The Varsity Blues started to pull away from there as the duos of Deborah Rebello and Janelle Wong, alongside Giselle Chan and Katie Ho-Shue, won their women’s doubles matches.

The final men’s doubles match victory for Toronto by Jonathan Lai and Jack Lin set the stage, putting Toronto ahead 5-1 overall. Waskiw-Ford started his men’s singles match first, but eventually he and Aaron Hsu of Waterloo decided to retire the match as Michael Farrell won 21-10 and 21-5 over Tommy Du to give the Varsity Blues a 6-1 victory.

“We’re so fortunate to have such a great team,” said So. “We developed together, we support together and it’s just an amazing experience (to win the 2019 championship).”

In the bronze medal match, Western triumphed over the Waterloo Warriors. The match ended tied 5-5, but the Mustangs held the game advantage to win the first tiebreaker 12-11.

This is back-to-back bronze medals for the Mustangs, who were 3-1 in Group B, won their quarter-final 6-2 over Ottawa and eventually were knocked into the bronze medal match by the eventual champion Varsity Blues.

Final Standings
Gold – Toronto
Silver – Waterloo
Bronze – Western
4th – McMaster
5th – Ottawa
6th – Ryerson
7th – Queen’s
8th – Carleton
9th – UOIT
10th – Guelph

Most Valuable Players
Bethany So – Toronto
Jonathan Lai – Toronto

Coach of the Year
Jackie Yeung – Toronto

Rookie of the Year
Katie Ho-Shue – Toronto
Michael Farrell – Toronto

OUA All-Stars

Male
Clement Chow – McMaster
Liam Woodside – Ottawa
Minh Pham – Ottawa
Jack Lin – Toronto
Marcus Waskiw-Ford – Toronto
Jonathan Lai – Toronto
Justin Law – Waterloo
Sean McGowan – Western

Female
Katie Ho-Shue – Toronto
Bethany So – Toronto
Giselle Chan – Toronto
Vivian Kwok – Toronto
Natalie Lam – Waterloo
Cara De Belle – Western
Kristy Chan – Western
Samantha Zheng - Western