ESTEVAN -- When the Central Cyclones badminton mixed doubles team of Micah Salido-Porter and Tara Nguyen came a single win away from playing for gold at provincials last season, there was hope that things would go their way one year later.
As it turns out, that’s exactly what happened -- and then some.
Salido-Porter and Nguyen reached the gold medal game at the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association provincial championship and would win it all, battling to a three-set victory over Saskatoon Walter Murray’s Danny Han and Jenna Xu.
The Moose Jaw duo got off to a great start with back-to-back commanding wins to open the tournament but ran into Xu and Han in their final round robin game, falling in two close sets.
Their 2-1 record was still enough to move on to the medal round, where they’d face Saskatoon Centennial’s Daniel Xiang and Annie Wang and take a 21-16, 21-19 victory.
As a result, the gold medal game was up next, and it would be a barnburner, with Xu and Han winning the first set 21-19 before Porter and Nguyen rallied for 21-13 and 21-16 victories the next two sets to claim gold.
Xiang and Wang would go on to win bronze.
The boys singles division saw Saskatoon Walter Murray’s Felix Lin move up a spot in the rankings after finishing second last year, taking a 21-12, 12-21, 21-13 win over Saskatoon Marion Graham’s John Knox in the gold medal match.
It was a perfect weekend for Lin, as he went 3-0 in his pool and then downed Regina Leboldus’ Kieran Curtis 21-9, 21-19 in the semifinal. Curtis wouldn’t go home empty handed, though, rebounding to win bronze.
The boys doubles division saw Regina Campbell’s Daniel Xu and Jackson Lai enter as defending champions, and they’d leave nothing to doubt, preventing any of their opponents from reaching 20 points in a game as they swept to the title.
That included a 21-14, 21-18 victory over Regina Campbell’s Kelvln Huynh and Louis Nguyen in the semifinal and a 21-19, 21-19 win against Saskatoon Evan Hardy’s Raymond Li and Owen Zhang in the gold medal game.
Prince Albert St. Mary’s Greyson De Padua and Zayan Doctor finished as bronze medalists.
It was also an undefeated run for Regina Campbell’s Sophie O’Neill, as she dominated all the way to the gold medal final in girls singles before running into her toughest match of the tournament.
After a 3-0 round robin run that saw O’Neill sweep each of her opponents, she’d put together another dominant showing in the semifinal and take a 21-16, 21-11 victory over Canwood’s Sadie Schutte.
That would set up a battle with Nipawin’s Ksenia Martens, with Martens winning the first set 21-11 before O’Neill rebounded with 21-12 and 21-16 wins.
Saskatoon Bedford Road’s Emma Grabowski was the bronze medalist.
Moose Jaw Cornerstone Christian School's Kiana Hrechka didn't have much luck in her round robin, going 0-3 in her pool.
Arguably the most dominant performance of provincials came in girls doubles, as Regina Campbell’s Jiayan Cau and Jenny Chen saw only one opponent score more than 14 points on them in a set as they swept to gold.
Both the semifinal and final were commanding wins, with Cau and Chen defeating Saskatoon Aden Bowman’s Jigisha Jain and Jennifer Zhau 21-14, 21-11 to reach the final before downing Regina Leboldus’ Sophie-Anne Francisco and Claire Tacsay 21-8, 21-10 for gold.
Nipawin’s Martina Moore and Jayden Spice claimed girls doubles bronze.
