Saints varsity roundup

by Rob Benneian

Several St. Clair College varsity sports teams enjoyed a successful February.

The Saints women’s basketball team qualified for the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association playoffs by finishing in fourth place in the West Region with a 10-8 record. This marks a return to form for the Saints after a rare miss a year ago when they did not qualify for the playoffs after 10 consecutive years of post-season play. Included in that run is an OCAA gold medal in 2003-04, silver medals in 2001-02 and 2009-10 and a bronze in 2002-03.

St. Clair’s badminton team won three bronze medals at the OCAA championships at Centennial College in Scarborough, Ont. Feb. 15-16. In men’s doubles, Darshan Selot and Sam Lamoure finished with a 6-0 record in pool play before falling to the eventual gold medal-winning team from Seneca College in Toronto in the semi-final match. They recovered to win their bronze medal match. Karen Williams, in women’s singles, and Darian George and Luc Su, in mixed doubles, also won bronze. Additionally, Williams and Vuong Tran were both named OCAA All-Stars.

The OCAA Curling Championships, which was hosted by Fanshawe College, wrapped up Feb. 17  and both the men’s and women’s teams made an impression. The men were part of a four-way tie for third place at the conclusion of the round robin. After three tiebreaker games, they were on the outside looking in after suffering a defeat at the hands of host Fanshawe, who went on to win the gold medal. The women’s team won the Vern Dow Team Fairplay Award, voted on by their opponents, despite going 0-4 in their round robin.

Finally, despite not qualifying for the playoffs, the men’s volleyball team showed tremendous improvement from a disappointing 2011-12 campaign where they posted a 1-17 record. They finished 6-12 this year in a season highlighted by wins over Redeemer Nov. 10 and Nipissing Feb. 2, who had a combined 26-10 record.

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