It may be Oscar Sunday but on Saturday our Badminton athletes earned their own hardware.
In our inaugural Mira Costa Badminton Invitational Tournament, our Mustang student-athletes brought their A-game to the beautiful Pavilion Gym which was the scene for three visiting high schools to challenge the undefeated Mustangs in a four-team tournament format. Long Beach Poly, Mark Keppel and Loara have strong programs and the competition was fierce from the start. Different than our tri-meet to kick off the season, the Invitational placed athletes in double-elimination brackets in Girls and Boys Singles, Mixed Doubles, Boys Doubles and Girls Doubles with two entries per school. Our results were exemplary. In Boys Singles Senior Skylar Irby Senior advanced to face his Junior teammate, James Zhang in the final. In a grueling three-game match Skyler prevailed to win the gold. Isabelle Chen, who placed 3rd in the CIF Southern Section Girls Singles in 2023, dominated Girls Singles and won Mixed Doubles with Freshman Hao Lin, without dropping a game. Hao added a 1st place finish in Boys Doubles with Senior Captain Zach Berkes, they also didn't drop a game. All our Varsity players all won at least one match with Sophomore Evelyn Green rounding out Girls Singles, Seniors TJ Lee and Andrew Pedrotti battled in Boys Doubles, Senior Nadia Kontorovsky Wong competed in Mixed-Doubles with Zach Berkes and Girls Doubles with Sophomore Priscilla Chen. And coming off their gold at the Arcadia JV Tournament, Junior Alyssa Garcia and Freshman Yumi Yamada were moved up to Varsity to round out Girls Doubles. Coaches David and Cindy Levin, a rare husband and wife coaching tandem, led the players though an efficient 6-hour Saturday with little down time. The Badminton Boosters provided hot dogs, snacks and drinks complimentary to all of the school's players, coaches and families. "Our first multi-team Tournament was a huge success," says David Levin, "not just for our Costa players, but for the teams who came to our home court and competed at a high level. This format sets up both our experienced and newer players for the upcoming tournaments in Arcadia and Cerritos heading into the CIF Team and Individual Tournaments where we are looking to make noise this year." Next up for the 5-0 undefeated Mustangs is Animo Venice on Wednesday March 13th at the Costa Pavilion 2:30pm. Come cheer on your Mustangs!
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AuthorAlan Berkes is a Costa parent who has coached multiple youth sports in Manhattan Beach Archives
May 2024
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