Banner Season: Warriors and Blues leading the way after day one of the OUA championship
Toronto, Ont. (C/O Toronto Varsity Blues) - Following the conclusion of Day 1 of the 2026 OUA Badminton Championship, the host University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Waterloo Warriors sitting at the top of their pools at the U of T Athletic Centre in downtown Toronto.
Currently first-place in Pool A, U of T was able to secure consecutive 9-1 wins over the Western Mustangs and McMaster Marauders. “We were well prepared and kept our team spirit high,” said Chloe Choi. Toronto saw Joanna Xu and Asher Bedi shine in singles action. Meanwhile, the duo of Nathan Mills and Jackie Dent were strong in doubles action, forming a dynamic duo in mixed doubles and carrying their strong play in men’s and women’s competition. For Western, a women’s doubles victory from Karen Ki and Jadalynn Lee secured Western’s first point of the day.
The Marauders currently sit second-place in Pool A, with a 1-1 record after a win over TMU. In a tightly contested match that needed three rubbers. After trailing 1-0 a nine-match win streak propelled McMaster to victory with standout singles performances by Cindy Zhao and Jessalyn Lai, capped off by a decisive mixed doubles win by Alex Zhang and Chloe Wang.
Shifting over to Pool B, the Warriors and Ottawa Gee-Gees went toe-to-toe as both squads were undefeated going into their contest against one another, in which the Warriors notched a 10-0 victory.
“The team’s worked hard the whole year. “We feel confident in our skillset. We’re happy with the results but there’s a lot to build on this weekend.”” said Warriors head coach Andrew Zhuang. “We’re trying to emphasize good habits and prepare for adversity that we might face.”
The Gee-Gees were coming off of a tight 6-4 win over Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, followed up by an 8-2 win over the Guelph Gryphons. Varalika Tyagi was leading the way for Ottawa, winning three of her first four events. Meanwhile, Waterloo began the weekend with an 8-2 win over the York Lions as Katie Lau had a dominant singles match winning by scores of 21-2 and 21-1 respectively. She followed it up with win in women’s doubles with Allison Cheng and mixed doubles alongside Matthew Yu.
Ontario Tech was able to notch their first win, defeating the Gryphons 7-3 to put themselves level with the York Lions in a tightly contested Pool B.
Round robin action resumes at the U of T Athletic Centre Saturday (Mar. 7) morning at 9 a.m. with quarter-final action set to begin at 5 p.m. Live stats are available here.
Day 1 Results
Pool A: McMaster 9, TMU 1
Pool B: Ottawa 6, Ontario Tech 4
Pool B: York 9, Guelph 1
Pool A: Toronto 9, Western, 1
Pool B: Waterloo 8, York, 2
Pool B: Ottawa 8, Guelph 2
Pool A: Toronto 9, McMaster 1
Pool B: Waterloo 10, Ottawa 0
Pool B: Ontario Tech 7, Guelph 3
Standings
Pool A
1st: Toronto
2nd: McMaster
3rd: TMU
4th: Western
Pool B
1st: Waterloo
2nd: Ottawa
3rd: Ontario Tech
4th: York
5th: Guelph