The Inverness Education Centre Academy Junior Girls table tennis team won provincial gold on Friday at the School Sport Nova Scotia tournament at Cape Breton Highlands Education Centre Academy. Members of the team include, from left: Taylor Pringle, Delylah Gillis, and Leeann MacEachern. Leeann and Taylor also won gold and silver medals respectively in individual competition. With them in the photo are Tessa MacKinnon and Emily Nickerson, Juniors who played up at the Intermediate Girls level. Missing from the photo is Kathryn MacKinnon.
May 15, 2024
-by Bill Dunphy
Call it the Goosens Effect.
The Cape Breton Highlands Huskies and Inverness Rebels combined for a record eight team medals and four individual medals at the School Sport Nova Scotia table tennis provincials held at the Cape Breton Highlands Education Centre Academy on the weekend.
Both schools have had Peter Goosens as principal, where he invested in proper equipment and tables and held various school and Nova Scotia Table Tennis Association tournaments throughout the year.
The investment, which saw CBHA win both the Senior Girls and Senior Boys banners last year, paid off in a huge way this year with Inverness teams winning one provincial banner and three bronze medals and CBHA teams winning two silver and two bronze.
The most dominant performance was provided by the Inverness Junior Girls who not only won the provincial banner but also had two players medal in individual competition.
Leeann MacEachern was a force in winning gold and Taylor Pringle was right behind with a silver medal. Delylah Gillis was the third member of the provincial winning team.
The Huskies Junior Girls – Harmony Fortune, Ali Hart, Ellouise Shaw, Mairrin Hart – won bronze. Mairrin was also a bronze medalist in individual play.
The Inverness Junior Boys ran into strong competition from DEVI International and Redcliff Middle School and finished with a bronze medal. The team includes Thomas Burke, Rory White, Alex Dan MacDonnell, and Eli Forance.
The CBHA Huskies won silver in the Intermediate Girls division, edged out of the gold by DEVI. The team includes Pauline Mirabaud, Claire MacPherson, Briley Romard, and Frede Sarnowski.
Inverness finished with a bronze medal in Int. Girls competition. The team includes Zoie Cormier, and Juniors Tessa MacKinnon, and Emily Nickerson who played up in the division.
Of note, in Int. Girls individual play, the bronze medal match between Zoie Cormier and Pauline Mirabaud went to five sets. It was very close, but Zoie’s experience and more rounded game was the deciding factor and she bounced back from her loss to Pauline at regionals.
There were no local medalists in Intermediate Boys play, though the Margaree Christian School finished fourth.
It was another silver-bronze finish for the Huskies and Rebels in the Senior Girls division.
Cobequid Education Centre exacted revenge on the Huskies for their loss last year to win gold. The silver-medalist Huskies were Noa Vuillaume, Madison Gale, Sofia Forte, and Julia Santos.
The bronze-medalist Rebels were Caragh Kennedy, Elena Giannini, Olivia Copley, and Abby MacNeil.
In Senior Boys competition, the CBHA Huskies weren’t gold this year but still finished third for a bronze. The team includes Allan Chiasson, Ciaran MacDonald, Liam Ross, and Marcello Resquetti.
In individual play, Ciaran MacDonald made it to the semifinals and finished fourth. In his match against the gold medalist Nicholas Kharenko of Sommet, he took six points off Kharenko in each set.
Also in Senior Boys, SAERC’s Spanish international student Roberto Tagliamonte Lara won silver in individual play, also falling to Kharenko.
The tournament was originally scheduled to be played at Inverness Education Centre Academy, but was moved to CBHECA at the last moment.
However, tournament organizer John MacKinnon was up to the challenge and the event went off without any problems.
“The Inverness ladies – Tanya Feehan and Kendra MacEachern – were amazing in helping me with the schedule of play,” said MacKinnon.
“Our Cape Breton Highlands parents were also amazing with the hospitality room and in helping me with whatever was needed. My thanks go out to Elizabeth and Adele Teasdale, Michel and Moira Chiasson, and Nicole Shaw, and forgive me if I am forgetting anyone.”
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