Palmetto girls secure their first ‘three-peat’ of GMAC badminton titles
Palmetto’s badminton team has a few traditions they wanted to make sure continued.
Taking part in another celebratory outing to Wall’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream in South Miami? Check.
Ensuring each player could hold their GMAC championship trophy for a day like the Stanley Cup? Check.
It all hinged on the Panthers continuing their county title streak on Thursday afternoon at the Braddock gym.
Led by dominant performances from one of their most dominant girls’ singles players and girls’ doubles teams in program history, Palmetto made sure its GMAC championship tradition continued by winning its third consecutive tournament title.
The Panthers won three of the five divisions to finish first with 16 points, and nearly won a fourth before an injury in the final match to one of their players. It was enough to top a strong outing by Coral Park, which finished runner-up with 11 points.
The Rams were led by boys’ singles champion Leandro Villalobos, who won his first GMAC title by beating Hialeah Gardens’ Joshua Peralta 18-21, 21-17, 21-18.
“My coach asked me if I’d try out the sport and I loved it,” said Villalobos, who also plays tennis and beach tennis and went undefeated in his first season playing badminton. “I approached it like I do everything, putting in my best effort to try and play the best I can.”
Under the tutelage of coach David Zarco over the past 15 years, Palmetto has now won eight GMAC titles overall.
But Thursday’s triumph was their first three-peat ever.
Junior Katarina Slazas and the duo of seniors Penelope Murray and Isabella Reale enjoyed three-peats of their own by cruising to the girls’ singles and doubles titles respectively.
Slazas, who has gone unbeaten during her three-year career, beat Reagan High’s Antonia Dean 21-5, 21-4 in the final. She has a chance next season to become Palmetto’s first four-time singles champion during Zarco’s tenure as coach.
“This is great. I always have a lot of fun when I’m out here,” Slazas said.
“We have a really good team at Palmetto and we’re very competitive.”
Murray and Reale have also gone undefeated and showed their great chemistry on the court once again, defeating Varela’s team of Darlyn Hernandez and Liz Tebacker 17-21, 21-18, 21-14.
After the victory, the two hugged with tears in their eyes as the reality set in that it was their last high school match together.
In boys’ doubles, Palmetto’s Darren Ku and Cristian Toruno have not been playing together nearly as long as their girls doubles counterparts. Ku, a starter on Palmetto’s basketball team, and Toruno, who plays for the Panthers’ volleyball squad, joined forces only two weeks ago. But their athletic talents helped them mesh quickly and become a formidable duo. For Ku, it was his second GMAC doubles title after winning the title last year with Charles Mo.
“The smash of the ball is similar to volleyball, receiving, defending…all of that translates to badminton,” Toruno said. “It just made it easier.”
About the only unfortunate turn of events for Palmetto came in the mixed doubles division when Brandon Jagers injured his ankle during the third game of their decisive match against Coral Park’s Madelyn Casco and Sebastian Mota, who were awarded the victory after Jagers and his partner Khanh Duong were forced to retire. Casco and Mota forced a decisive match after losing earlier to Jagers and Duong, battling through the consolation bracket and beating them 22-20, 17-21, 21-18 in their second match.
RESULTS
Team scores: 1. Palmetto 16, 2. Coral Park 11, 3. Reagan 6, 4. Varela 5, 5. Sunset and Hialeah Gardens 3; 7. Braddock and Coral Gables 2; 9. TERRA and Goleman 1.
Individual finals Boys singles: Leandro Villalobos (CP) d. Joshua Peralta (HG) 18-21, 21-17, 21-18; Girls singles: Katarina Slazas (Pal) d. Antonia Dean (RR) 21-5, 21-4; Boys’ doubles: Darren Ku/Cristian Toruno (Pal) d. Mario Casco/Juan Cortes (CP) 18-21, 21-15, 21-15; Girls’ doubles: Penelope Murray/Isabella Reale (Pal) d. Darlyn Hernandez/Liz Tebacker
(Var) 17-21, 21-18, 21-14; Mixed doubles: Madelyn Casco/Sebastian Mota (CP) d. Khanh Duong/ Brandon Jagers (Pal) 2220, 17-21, 21-18 (won decisive match, injury ret.).