Castro, Laginja win titles at 3rd annual state tournament
Lidney Castro of Germantown won the men’s singles championship and Iva Laginja of Baltimore claimed the women’s singles title at the third annual Maryland State Championships, a 3-star event held this past weekend at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. Castro, formerly a member of the Brazil national team, was seeded third, but defeated topseeded Jeffrey Zeng of Germantown in the semifinals, 4-2, and Wang Qingliang of Germantown in the final, 3-0. Wang defeated Martin Jezo of Laurel in the other semifinals, 3-0. Castro also teamed with Jezo to defeat Zeng/ Wang in the open doubles final. Women’s singles came down to a threeway tie between top-seeded Caroline Kajihar of Rockville, second-seeded Si Cheong of Ellicott City and unseeded Laginja. In the final grouping, Cheong defeated Kajihar, who defeated Laginja, who defeated Cheong. It went down to games, with Laginja coming out on top. Stanley Hsu, 9, of North Potomac won Under-10 and U-12 titles. Ronald Chen, 13, of North Potomac won U-15, while his brother, Spencer, 16, won U-21. Todd Klinger, 13, of Olney won U-15 and U-32 doubles with Nikhil Naravan, also 13, of Boyds. Derek Nie, 17, of North Potomac won U-18 over Klaus Wood, 16, of Ellicott. — battle with oral cancer. ... The Broncos held LB Shane Ray out of workouts due to a sore left wrist, on which he has had three surgeries. ... The Bears re-signed veteran TE Zach Miller to a one-year contract after a gruesome injury in October that nearly cost him his left leg.
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