Friends … opponents
Lu vs. Dent: A senior badminton final in name only
KITCHENER — Joseph Lu and Thomas Dent know each other well.
The nationally ranked players renewed their friendly rivalry Wednesday night at the Waterloo County high school badminton championship with Lu recording a 2-0 (21-19, 21-12) victory in the senior boys’ final at Huron Heights Secondary School.
The two are seniors in name only as both finalists are first-year high school students — Lu at Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School and Dent at Waterloo Collegiate.
What they lack in age, they make up for with experience as Lu is the 15thranked singles player in Canada at the under-17 level, while Dent checks in at No. 82.
“I play with a lot of players at the provincial and national level, so it’s not a complete surprise that I was able to win in my first year,” said Lu, who trains out of the Mandarin Badminton Club in Markham.
“Thomas is a good opponent and played well. We’ve played with each other a lot and used to train together. We’re close friends off the court but opponents on the court.”
Dent’s second-place finish helped the WCI Vikings win their eighth consecutive WCSSAA title, finishing ahead of the Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders and Huron Heights Huskies. WCI also claimed the senior title ahead of Huron Heights and SJAM, while SJAM won the junior division in front of the Elmira Lancers and WCI.
The top four finishers from Wednesday’s championship advance to next week’s Central Western Ontario tournament that will be held Wednesday and Thursday at Conestoga College.
Lu and Dent, who trains out of the KC Badminton Club in Markham, posed for photos after their championship final and both are hoping to meet each other in next week’s CWOSSA final.
Dent would obviously like a different result but has set his sights on reaching the all-Ontario (OFSAA) championship by earning a spot in next week’s senior final. Both finalists advance to the May 4-6 provincial championship in Pain Court.
“It went the way I expected it to go but it was a close match,” said Dent. “He’s stronger and faster than me … so I need to get stronger and faster.”
In other senior results, Victoria Giguere of WCI beat Payton Harasymiw of Southwood in girls’ singles, Scott Parker and Sierra Olsthoorn of WCI beat Chris Phung and Maddy Johannes of Grand River in mixed doubles, Yifan Wu and Yandi Hu of WCI beat George Walker and Samantha Harris of Glenview Park in girls’ doubles, and Sam Lai and Ben Tan of WCI beat Andrew Legare and Josh Legare of Southwood in boys’ doubles.
On the junior side, Cynthia Zhang of Cameron Heights beat Miranda Wu of SJAM in girls’ singles, Seth Lewis of Glenview Park topped Donny Ren of SJAM in boys’ singles, Becca Kim and Sean Tippin of WCI beat Evan Rees and Megan Spark of Elmira in mixed doubles, Ashvinya Moorthy and Emily Schnittke of Grand River beat Jenna Denomme and Evi Zafiris of SJAM in girls’ doubles and Eric Luo and Ian Naisby of Elmira beat Yuvraj Ukrani and Sean Tang of SJAM in boys’ doubles.
The two-day District 8 championship wraps up Thursday at Conestoga College with the senior competition.