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Badminton tops athlete awards

Badminton proved the sport of choice at the annual Douglas College awards.
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Top female: RuiLin Huang was named the female at the annual Douglas College awards banquet last Thursday.

Badminton proved the sport of choice at the annual Douglas College awards.

National men's doubles gold medallist Luo Wei and five-time Canadian Colleges' women's singles champion RuiLin Huang won the men's and women's athletes of the year honours at the year-end banquet at the Executive Plaza Hotel in Coquitlam on March 28.

Wei, who won the men's doubles national gold medal with a third new partner earlier this year, placed first beside rookie freshman Nathan Choi at the nationals.

"I was a little surprised," said Wei. "But all the people trained hard and worked together as a team. We deserve it."

Huang, who earned a standing ovation from her peers after receiving her mounted team uniform for completing her five years of athletic egibility, won her fifth straight Douglas female athlete of the year award.

"I'm happy, and a little bit surprised," she said after receiving the honour. "I'm proud of the whole team. If I didn't have them, I wouldn't be able to get the good results I got."

The 23-year-old No. 1 ranked women's singles player in Canada finished her fifth year of collegiate badminton winning 207 career matches while losing just one game.

While at Douglas, Huang was named the CCAA women's badminton player of the year four times and is also a five-time All-Canadian and All-PacWest player of the year.

Basketball players earned the Andy and Helen Andrews memorial academic athlete of the year awards.

Harpreet Randhawa won the male award, while Ainsleigh Mensah was the female winner.

Women's basketball coach Curtis Nelson was named the Douglas College coach of the year for leading the program to a bronze medal at the PacWest provincial - its best finish in 13 years.

Women's soccer won the team academic excellence award for having the highest cumulative grade point average.

Each sport also gave out individual awards.

The MVP for the Douglas running club was Burnaby South grad Travis Fraser.

National gold medallists Amy Leung and Charmagne Yeung were named the top doubles team for badminton. Mark Chang was awarded the most inspirational, while Choi was named the program's MVP.

In baseball, Josh Larsen won the sophomore pitcher of the year. Matt Ney earned an award for leadership, while Colby Ross was the most inspirational player.

Kristi Wilson won the most inspirational for women's softball. Melanie Gulbransen was the most improved player and pitcher Kyla Myre was the MVP.

Fifth-year Patti Olson won the Royals award for basketball. Freshman Taylor Carle was the defensive player of the year. PacWest player of the year Amonda Francis earned the team's MVP.

Andrew Baron earned the coaches award in men's basketball. Randhawa and Devan Haynes shared the MVP.

In golf, Derek Britton and two-time PacWest player of the year Kate Weir were named male and female MVP, respectively. The most inspirational golfer went to Myles DeBrincat.

Kelsey Acaster was women's soccer rookie of the year. Marnie McMillan was the most inspirational and Laura Shaw was

In men's soccer, Devin Phelan was the top defender, Gagan Josan the top rookie and Sahil Sandhu the MVP.

The winner of women's volleyball culture award was Mandy Grierson. Hayley Flower-Ainge was the rookie of the year. Victoria Hocking took home the MVP.

Centaur Award winner Andrew McWilliams was named the men's volleyball program impact player of the year.

Erich Meyer earned the set the bar award, while Jordan Or was the recipient of the pride award.

Burnaby's Tyler Yorko and Rossi were co-winners of a Baseball Coaches Association of B.C. scholarship.

tberridge@royalcityrecord.com