Sports February 4, 2008 Garth McLennan supergarth@hotmail.com Douglas Badminton Team Captures Victory Garth McLennan sports editor F or the third consecutive year, the Douglas College Royals have won the provincial badminton hampronships. D0*tk go lica, s “Douglas doubles parts of the competition. They won four out of five events behind the play of Stephanie Ko and Andy Cheong. Ko had a perfect tournament, going 12-0 in all of her events, winning the women’s doubles with Charmagne Yeung, and the mixed doubles with Cheong. Cheong was also gold for Douglas. He finished 12-0 as well and triumphed in the mixed doubles and the men’s doubles with his partner Chris Bec: e Sung won the an s singies side of the competition, and finished dominated the team ° second in the women’s division, going 6-0 in a dominated the doubles. remarkable performance team division Cheong and Ko were 3 at the Provincials, which were contested at Capilano College this year. Douglas was also very strong in doubles competition, taking the top two spots in all of the winning 6-0” awarded the BCCAA athlete of the week honors for their recent performances. Cheong is more than an accomplished badminton player. He, along with Chris Lee, has won the BCCAA provincial title and the CCAA National doubles gold medal. Cheong also represented Canada at the World Junior Badminton Championships in Korea in 2006. Ko participated in the 2007 Canadian Winter Games, where she captured gold in the doubles division for Team Ontario. BC Woman Wins Top Athlete Award in US By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor Davies Lawrie, 20, has won the prestigious Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s female Sports Athlete of the Year for her remarkable softball prowess. Lawrie, a resident of Langley, plays for the University of Washington and stars as their top pitcher. She accepted the award in Seattle with Seattle Seahawks’ receiver Bobby Engram, who won the male counterpart of the award. Lawrie, who is a Brookswood Secondary graduate from 2005 and was named in the Province newspaper’s Head of Class feature for that year, showcased her skills for the Washington Huskies last season by taking them to third place in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) College Softball World Series. She also broke the record she set for school strikeouts with 457, and recorded an incredible 14.8 strikeouts for every nine innings. On her way to the College World Series, she had a record of 31-13, and opened the historic tournament up with a no hitter, which she followed with a one hitter. Her play at the event earned her All- Tournament Team honors, and she was named to the first team of the All-Pac-10 team at pitcher. Lawrie is establishing herself as one of the most accomplished pitchers in Washington school history. After only two seasons of play, she is second on the all-time Huskies strikeout list with 844 blankings. She was also put on the first-team Louisville Slugger/ NFCA All-American team Lawrie will not be competing for Washington in the upcoming season. Instead, she is gearing up for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, where she will compete for Canada against the best in the world. Preparation for the Olympics begins almost immediately. She has already left for the start of team training, which is being held in Las Vegas, Nevada. After her trip to Vegas, she will travel to Australia, where a number of warm-up games with the Canadian squad will be held over a the fact that that is what she is indeed aiming for. “IT feel like it’s going to be three and a half week period. an upset if we don’t win the national After the Olympics are over, championship my junior year,” Lawrie Lawrie is set said in an interview to retum to - i with the Seattle Washington, She is now gearing up for Post-Intelligencer where she will ° at the awards nay ae sabe the 2008 Summer Olympics tect. eth season. If itis in Beijing where she will _ is now in it’s 73" anything like ” year. her _— previous comp ele Se or Canada. Lawrie’s one, in which cousin Brett is also she was named to the first all-star team of numerous experts all over the NCAA, Washington is in line for a coveted national championship. That has long been a goal of hers, and she has made no bones about an outstanding prospect, though for baseball, not softball. He is slated to be a high pick in the upcoming Major League Baseball entry draft.