Melbourne Head Regatta 2016: The sun shines, as do the St Catherine’s Crews

On Saturday 19 November, the Melbourne Head Regatta was held on the Yarra River. St Catherine’s School Years 9, 10 and 11 rowers faced off on their second regatta of the Rowing season.

Once again it was a historic day for St Catherine’s School with students posting the best performances of any previous St Catherine’s School season.

Senior Rowing

With a few rowers missing due to Year 10 camp, St Catherine’s Senior Crews were not at full strength going into the Regatta. Regardless of this, the Division 1 Crew posted a commanding 14 second win, defending our 2015 title. It was rowed by:

Coached by Will Bernard and John Saunders.

The Division 2 Crew had a hampered run due to environmental factors, however the girls put their best feet forward with a temporary rower.

Year 9 crews enjoyed dominance at the Regatta with two Divisions being offered for Year 9s, both of these won by St Catherine’s Crews.

A crew raced by invitation, as Ben Burger’s students had a senior fill in when Celia Cody was struck down by injury during the week. The crew with Eleanor Millear filling in, posted the fastest time in Division 1 by 32 seconds.

However, the Year 9 Division 1 win went to the crew of the Will Bernard by 44 seconds back to second place Strathcona. This was rowed by:

In place of Charlotte Young, the crew was coached on the day by our professional cyclist Sean Lake, who has been assisting with coaching crews this year in other coaches’ absences.

The Division 2 win, by 17 seconds, went to the crew coached by Kate Steven and rowed by:

Second place in this Division went to our St Catherine’s Crew of the Sylvia Walton and coached by Ainsley Raggat:

Our other St Catherine’s Crews all placed highly in their Divisions. This continued effort by the Year 9s is a great sign for their squad leading into the Term 1 racing season. A massive thanks to Year 8 students Chloe Rodgers and Annabelle Brend, for competing with the Year 9s. It’s great that students are always keen to assist students from other Year levels, and have fun doing it.

Many staff members came down to the river to cheer on the girls including, Principal, Mrs Michelle Carroll, Head of Sport, Mr Chris Jones, Sport and Athlete Development Coordinator, Mr Lloyd Knight and Year 11 Dean, Miss Jeanette Gunn. Adding to this strong parent support for the event sees St Catherine’s Crews enjoying the best supporters on the river bank.

Full credit goes to Junior Coordinator, Brigette Carlile, Senior Lead Coach, John Saunders and the rest of the coaching team for leading the students through their three Ps with absolute precision.

Students now head into their holiday training regime. This will involve students completing training in their own time to continue to build their fitness and their abilities to compete.

Mr David Fraumano,
Head of Rowing

Water Polo Semi Final 

St Catherine’s earned the right to play in the GSV Water Polo Finals by being undefeated in their rounds.

With much excitement the Team headed to MSAC to play in the semi final against Loreto. Even though we were very apprehensive about playing in a bigger pool, where standing on the bottom was not an option, the match started with our girls scoring the first two goals.

Throughout the match the lead swapped regularly, however, Loreto were victorious scoring 10 goals to our eight.

We certainly had plenty of opportunities to win, but our girls should not be disappointed as they all played well. Credit to Loreto for their good performance.

Players:

Year 8 Thalia Barbayannis, Romy Cantwell, Jane Fenton, Charlotte Gough, Sophie Hogan, Alexandra Lidstrom, Isobel Tanner and Romilly Walker

Year 7 Lucy Campbell, Sophie Gough, Isabella Hornor, Ella Johns and Clementine Newton-Brown.

Miss Jeanette Gunn
Teacher in Charge of Water Polo