Nice surprise for Grens

Two-by-two, they kept coming up to the awards table to receive their ribbons, which were given to only the top two teams in each of seven levels at the Rolling Meadows doubles badminton invitational.

Yet, despite placing first or second in six levels, the Elk Grove Grenadiers had no ideal they had won the meet. In fact, most coaches picked almost every team but them as the eventual champion.

Even the Grenadiers weren't that certain.

"We're strong from fourth on down," said Joe Lennon, who coached the Grens freshman team last year, then the JV squad the three seasons before that. "The talent drops off a little, then it picks up again.

"We didn't expect to win. I think it's very surprising and we're very pleased."

Elk Grove scored 36.9 points followed by Plainfield North, which scored 32.4 in second place in the seven-team meet.

Winning titles for the Grenadiers were No. 3 Brittany Gonio-Catherine Yuh, No. 4 Lisa Patel-Tomoko Abe, No. 5 Kushbu Patel-Dhruvi Patel and No. 6 Sejal Patel-Shryea Patel.

Finishing second were No. 2 Kinjal Patel-Ripple Patel and No. 7 Georgeshia Norwood-Ella Labaz.

"They did well," Lennon said. "We have some kids out due to spring break. We brought some JV players up. At this meet last year, we lost a kid for the year.

"The best thing about this meet is that the lower level players stepped up. Five, six, seven all did well. Four through 10 are set. The top three are undecided."

In third place was Barrington, which totaled 28.2 points, and the host Mustangs claimed fifth place with 19.7 points.

"Like all schools, I had to bring up some JV players because some kids are on spring break," said Meadows coach Ken Mills. "The purpose of this meet is to see who plays well together. We just didn't match up. I'm missing two doubles players. They weren't partners, but it would have helped."

The highlight of the meet for Meadows was the play of Francesca Himelman and Mellisa Heller. For the second year in a row, they won first doubles and the tournament championship.

"We had some tough matches, Barrington specifically," Himelman said. "They move well together and they're very powerful. My partner and me, we've been playing together for a long time. We adapt well to the teams that we're playing."

"In the beginning of the day, our first and second games weren't the best we've ever played," Heller said. "But we still did well and we were confident about the rest of the day."