Badminton: York wins first WSS title since 1982

Updated: April 27, 2012 11:10PM

York junior Georgia Schneider had plenty of motivation to do well at the West Suburban Silver Meet Friday in Elmhurst.

“If we didn’t win, we’d probably have to do suicides at practice Monday,” Schneider said. “We’d be in trouble.”

There’s no need to worry about the sprints anymore.

York captured its first outright conference championship since 1982.“This is huge accomplishment,” York coach Nicole Young said. “We knew coming in it was going to be tough and they would be chasing us down. We played awesome in doubles. This is probably one of the proudest moments of my coaching career. These guys deserve this. They worked hard every day to get here and they did it.”

York finished ahead of Downers Grove North and Hinsdale Central in the six-team meet.

Downers North has won at least a share of every conference championship since the conference split into Silver and Gold Divisions in 1997.

“This means so much to us,” York senior Torrie Graham said. “It just shows how much we’ve grown as a badminton program and as a team. Everyone was a little nervous going in because there was a lot of buzz about us possibly doing it. It was really close and Coach Young was going around yelling at people telling us we’re going to do this. Coach promised to wear this feather headband we made if we won it, so she better.”

Graham, who won a conference doubles championship as a sophomore, earned her first singles title after cruising past Downers North’s Hannah Henson 21-11, 21-15 in the No. 1 singles final.

She also teamed with Schneider to place first at No. 3 doubles.

“I think we all knew we could do it this year,” said Schneider, who also took first at No. 2 singles. “DGN always places really high at state and this year we have a really strong team and we’re hoping to get top 10 at state. This gives us momentum going into the postseason.”

York also got first-place finishes in singles from Julia Carlson (No. 4), Lauren Liang (No. 6), Nicole Barton (No. 7) and Genie Rizzo (No. 8), while Hannah Paist and Hannah Clark took first at No. 4 doubles.

Downers North’s Marek finished first at No. 3 singles, while Hinsdale Central’s Claire Foster (No. 5 singles), Oak Park-River Forest’s Dominique Walker (No. 9 singles) and Lyons Township’s Sarah O’Heron (No. 10 singles) also turned in first-place efforts.

In doubles, Foster and Taylor Proudfoot (No. 1), Downers North’s Emily Planek and Emily Buhle (No. 2) and Hinsdale Central’s Lizzie Shaw and Amy Wey (No. 5) all won titles.

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