Sandburg’s Wagner eyes history

Updated: May 11, 2011 8:08PM

Sandburg senior Katie Wagner has been waiting for this moment for a long time and now it has arrived.

Ever since she lost both of her matches at the badminton state finals her sophomore year, Wagner has worked hard to improve while patiently awaiting her chance to make history.

That chance will come this weekend at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, when Wagner tries to become the first player in Sandburg history to win a state championship. She is the No. 2 seed with a 43-1 record, her only loss a three-setter to Stevenson junior Wan Wan Liu. New Trier senior Mari Georgiadis (46-0) is the top seed. Buffalo Grove seniors Nell Boyd and Michelle Byjos (31-0) are the No. 1 seed in doubles.

“My goal is to win state, so hopefully that can happen,” Wagner said. “It takes a lot of determination and you have to have the mental game there because that’s one of the most important parts.”

Wagner has plenty of both. After playing basketball her first three years, she gave up that sport this year to focus on badminton, in which she was one of the top returning singles players thanks to a top-16 finish last spring.

But Wagner has been methodical in her approach, refusing to look ahead to the next match or even the next point.

“(Wagner’s strength) is definitely her patience,” Sandburg coach Kim Huelsman said. “She’s a finesse player and she just waits and I think that knowing that it’s the first one to 21, if she loses a point, she can relax and know she can get the next point and move on. Her repertoire of shots is phenomenal and she can hit anything, but it’s the patience that really pays off when she’s on the court.”

Wagner, who plans to study engineering at Michigan and has a 4.86 GPA on a 5.0 scale, enjoys using her intelligence on the court.

“I like to figure out other players’ weaknesses and I think that’s something I’m pretty good at,” Wagner said. “My mental game is something that I’m really proud of because Coach always tells me I do have great patience. When I’m down in a game I try not to think about the score, just one point at a time, so that’s allowed me to overcome some big deficits, so hopefully I can take that all the way through state.”

Sandburg has waited a long time to field a player of Wagner’s caliber. The program has not produced a state medalist since Amy Frazier took fifth in 1993.

But the Eagles, who tied their best finish by finishing sixth last year, think they have a good chance at winning their first trophy. Junior singles player Kara Kentner (23-1) and the doubles teams of senior Carolyn Brown and junior Rachel Allen and seniors Alexis Andrews and Vicky Gugula also qualified, but the linchpin is Wagner.

“(Winning a trophy) would be amazing,” Wagner said. “I know all of these girls have worked really hard and we have a good team. That would be really good for the school.”

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