Weekend Recap - Week 19

As CUE Athletics begins the playoff season in some sports, while finishing up the regular season in others, Thunder Badminton, Hockey, and Indoor Track all were playing. Here’s what happened last week:

Badminton

Concordia University of Edmonton played host for the 2025 ACAC Badminton Championships this past weekend. As the host institution, the Thunder welcomed the King's University Eagles, SAIT Trojans, and NAIT Ooks, creating an electric atmosphere for the highly anticipated event.

Day 1 was highlighted by the Team Event, as each institution battled to take home the 2025 ACAC Team Championship. In the Semi Final event, NAIT bested Concordia by defeating them in six of the seven team matches. King’s topped SAIT in their semi final matchup, taking four of seven team matches from the Trojans. It was an Ooks vs. Eagles final, with King’s winning the championship, defeating NAIT in four of seven events. SAIT swept Concordia for the bronze, winning all seven matches in the team event.

Day 2 focused on the individual events of the championship, with a ticket to CCAA Nationals on the line. CUE’s Emma Tran came away with a Gold Medal in the Women’s Singles event, defeating SAIT’s Sienna Pricca 2 sets to 0. The tandem of Raphael Motel and Jonathan Su claimed a Silver Medal in the Men’s Doubles event, falling to Carl Canillo and Paul Ouano of SAIT in the final game. 

Tran, Su, and Motel will now advance to the CCAA Badminton National Championship held at the King’s University at the end of February.

Hockey 

CUE Hockey played their final weekend of regular season games against the NAIT Ooks. 

Friday night’s final home game of the regular season was a game to forget for the Thunder, as NAIT’s offence tallied nine goals, defeating the Thunder 9-3. NAIT jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead by the end of the first period, following that up with two goals in the second period, and another three goals in the third. The Thunder found the back of the net three times, with Zachery Carlson scoring on the power play in the second period, followed by goals from Ethyn Hopp and Nikolai Morrison in the third. 

Saturday proved to be a different story, as the Thunder beat the Ooks 4-2 on the road. Concordia got the scoring started with goals from Ryley Morgan and Andrew Kennedy. NAIT got in on the action late in the first to end the period 2-1 CUE. Both teams each had a goal in the second period and Grayson Reid put the game away late in the third with another goal for the Thunder. Dylan Handel continues to be an offensive force, leading the ACAC in points with 38 points in 23 games. 

ACAC Hockey Playoffs will begin February 28th, but the Thunder’s opponent is yet to be decided. CUE will either play Red Deer or NAIT in Round 1, which will be determined after one final weekend of play for both teams.

Indoor Track

Thunder Indoor Track participated in their second Grand Prix of the season hosted by Red Deer Polytechnic.

Highlights from the tournament include a ACAC record setting run from Ashlee Walker in the Women’s 1500m event, finishing in first with a time of 4:28.73, a full 7.41 seconds faster than the previous event record. The Concordia women’s team also finished second in the women’s 2x200m relay and the 4x400m relay events. On the men’s side, Markus Boland finished in second in the men’s 1500m, and the men’s team finished third in the 4 x 200m relay.

The Indoor Track team has one more event March 1st when they head to Lethbridge for the final Grand Prix of the season.