Badminton: Shi, Stevenson take state titles
Stevenson's Esther Shi won the singles championship in Saturday's badminton state tournament finals in Charleston, helping the Patriots to a team triumph at Eastern Illinois.
In the title match, Shi topped Naperville North's Emma Lin 21-13, 21-11.
The Patriots finished with 18.5 points to top runner-up Neuqua Valley (17).
It's the first badminton state championship for Stevenson since 2012, when coach Mike Fitzgerald's team won it. This year's team is coached by Grant Johnson.
Fremd and Naperville North tied for third place at 14 points, with Hinsdale South (10.5) in fifth and Buffalo Grove (10) in sixth.
Hinsdale South's Judy Yang topped Fremd's Kellie Liu 16-21, 21-13, 22-20 for third place in singles, and Lauren Ho of Neuqua Valley defeated Vaishali Manoharan of Waubonsie Valley 21-18, 21-19 for the consolation title.
The doubles championship went to Joyce Chen and Shrinithi Venkatesan of Neuqua Valley, who topped Stevenson's May Ling and Jenny Yang 21-17 for the title.
Metea Valley's Nitya Nagarajan and Allison Yu pulled out a 10-21, 21-19, 22-20 decision against Buffalo Grove's Megan Gamber and Katie Jarosz for third place in doubles.
Fremd's Hannah Chen and Sharon Wu won the doubles consolation title by beating Hinsdale Central's Angela Li and Lana Millman 21-17, 21-16.