TORONTO - The top badminton players and coach in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) were honoured Friday morning as part of the 2016 OCAA Badminton Championships being hosted by Seneca College.
Two-time OCAA men's singles and reigning national champion Owen Kurvits (Hamilton) of Redeemer University College is the OCAA men's player of the year for the second straight season. The third-year athlete went undefeated at west regionals, and is looking this weekend to become just the fourth men's singles champion to win three straight OCAA gold medals. Kurvits lost only two matches all season, and was the champion of the Fanshawe Invitational. Kurvits is once again an OCAA all-star, a Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) all-Canadian, and a nominee for the national men's player of the year.
Defending OCAA and CCAA women's singles gold medalist Olivia Lei (China) of Humber College is the OCAA women's player of the year for the second straight season. Lei did not lose a set at west regionals, and was undefeated in open play this season. The second-year athlete is looking this weekend to become the first OCAA women's singles champion to repeat in four seasons. Lei is once again an OCAA all-star, a CCAA all-Canadian, and a nominee for the national women's player of the year.
Fanshawe College head coach Matt Plachta is the OCAA coach of the year. Plachta saw three of his athletes advance to provincials, including OCAA all-stars Jodi Grobbecker (Stratford) and Riley Hogan (Sault Ste. Marie) in women's doubles. Second-year women's singles player Tilu Vaidya (India) is also competing at Seneca this weekend. Plachta is the OCAA's nominee for CCAA coach of the year.
Individuals who finished in first place at east and west regionals are named OCAA all-stars. In addition to the aforementioned Kurvits, Lei, Grobbecker and Hogan above, Centennial College's Aanchal Mehra (India); Tomomi Tamura (Japan) and Benjamin Yong (Mississauga) of George Brown College; Jesse Assing (Bethany), Ryan Chow (Mississauga), Adam Dong (China) and Phuthita Nilyok (Thailand) of Humber; and Seneca College's Rachel Nham (Vietnam), Peter Nie (China), Wenchao Shi (China), Allan Tong (Scarborough) and Yan Zhou (China) were all honoured.
Team champions at OCAA regionals were also honoured. Seneca won both men's and women's team titles at east regionals, while Humber swept both team titles at west regionals.
2015-16 OCAA BADMINTON MAJOR AWARDS
OCAA Regional Men's Team Champions
East: Seneca Sting
West: Humber Hawks
OCAA Regional Women's Team Champions
East: Seneca Sting
West: Humber Hawks
OCAA Men's Player of the Year
Owen Kurvits, Redeemer
OCAA Women's Player of the Year
Olivia Lei, Humber
CCAA All-Canadians
Owen Kurvits, Redeemer
Olivia Lei, Humber
OCAA Coach of the Year
Matt Plachta, Fanshawe
OCAA All-Stars
Jesse Assing, Humber
Ryan Chow, Humber
Adam Dong, Humber
Jodi Grobbecker, Fanshawe
Riley Hogan, Fanshawe
Owen Kurvits, Redeemer
Olivia Lei, Humber
Aanchal Mehra, Centennial
Rachel Nham, Seneca
Peter Nie, Seneca
Phuthita Nilyok, Humber
Wenchao Shi, Seneca
Tomomi Tamura, George Brown
Allan Tong, Seneca
Benjamin Yong, George Brown
Yan Zhou, Seneca
- OCAA -
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