The 2024 AIA Fall Badminton State Championships are complete, with Hamilton winning the Division I title and Ironwood repeating as Division II champion. THE singles and doubles championships took place before last week’s team finals. Here is a recap of the team championship matches:
Division I
Hamilton was looking to avenge his loss in last year’s final to Sunnyslope and he did just that, completing a perfect season. The No. 1 seed Huskies defeated the No. 2 Vikings, 5-3, to win their second title in three years, with doubles matches being the difference.
In the first singles match, Nihira Sane of Hamilton defeated Annabelle Schlesinger of Sunnyslope 21-9, 21-12. The second match between the Huskies’ Katheryn Yi and the Vikings’ Eleni Economopoulos was a back-and-forth affair with Economopoulos winning 21-17, 22-24, 21-16, to earn a point for Sunnyslope.
Hamilton’s Hayley Koh took care of business in the third match when she took on Layton Hunter. 21-17, 21-13 to give Hamilton another point. The Huskies then gained momentum when Shreya Deshpande survived a close match against Addie Orihuela 21-19, 21-18.
Delaney Chappell of Sunnyslope beat Pariva Chappell of Hamilton, 21-17, 21-5. Brianna Valente of Sunnyslope beat Sunan Zhang of Hamilton 21-16, 21-18.
The match was tied at 3 and went to doubles for the tiebreaker. In the first doubleheader, Hamiltons’ Katheryn Yi and Shreya Deshpande took on Eleni Economopoilos and Addie Orihuela. The Hamilton seemed too much for Sunnyslope, winning 21-9, 22-20.
This left the teams tied.
“Leaving singles three and three was nerve-wracking, but after seeing them score the first points in doubles, I knew they had refocused and were playing really well together,” said Hamilton head coach , Lauren Rosales.
In doubles matches, Hamilton’s Deshpande and Yi beat Sunnyslopes Economopoulos and Orihuela 21-9, 22-20. Sane and Koh of Hamilton then beat Hunter and Schlesinger of Sunnyslope 21-17, 21-11 to secure the title.
“The girls were very focused on winning against Sunnyslope this year,” Rosales said. “They’re always a very well-coached and competitive team. They show up in big moments and are tough competitors.”
Section II
No. 2 seed Ironwood, the defending D-II champion, completed a repeat by beating No. 1 Chaparral, 5-2. It was their fourth state title in the last five years.
In the first singles match, Chaparral’s Hadley Huffman defeated Ironwood’s Madison Nguyen, 19-21, 22-20, 21-16, to earn the Firebirds’ first point. Chaparral earned another point in the second match when Addie Seidel defeated Sasha Tijore, 18-21, 21-15, 21-18.
From there it was all Ironwood.
The Eagles’ Aylssa Ridgley defeated Addie Scott in the third match, 21-12, 21-14. Ironwood sophomore Sophia Tijore faced Emerson Lewis in the fourth match and earned another point for Ironwood, winning 21-10, 21-11.
In the fifth match, the Eagles’ Mariyah Peru-Ray defeated Chaparral’s Mckenzie Tover, 21-5, 21-5. In the final singles match, Ironwood’s Alexis Jones defeated Pallavi Narayanan, 21-5, 21-14.
In the doubles match, Ironwood’s Nguyen and Jones defeated Chaparral’s Tover and Peries for the winning point, 21-10, 21-12.
“Winning two in a row is a big accomplishment because it shows that the program is very good and that you’re not just a prodigy,” Ironwood head coach Brett Stafford said. “It also shows how hard the girls work to make sure they don’t fall off year after year.”
This article was originally published on Arizona Republic: Hamilton and Ironwood are Arizonabadminton state champions
