Sport Scoreboard

It’s been an exciting week of sport at St Catherine’s.

• Our GSV Weekly Sports have commenced their trials with great success. All students should stay tuned post their Week 3 training session to see selected teams for their respective Round 1 GSV matches.
• Our rowers have had a busy week. It kicked off with our Juniors and Intermediate crews winning the overall school championship at the Morongo Regatta, a first for St Catherine’s. Our crews were presented to family and friends at the crew presentation evening. And, we formally welcomed our new boats to the fleet, naming the ‘St Catherine’s 120’ and ‘Paul Cross’. Stay tuned for plenty more to come. Further details on the Rowing regattas are available in Mr David Fraumano, Head of Rowing’s report below.
• GSV Swimming kicked off with record numbers in the pool, we had 50 girls swimming on Friday morning and we encourage many more students who signed up to get involved and be a part of the team. Students will have their first GSV PB Meet/St Catherine’s Selection Trial on Tuesday the 14 February. Mr Mark Cooper (Head Coach of Swimming) is encouraging girls to come along to continue to build their confidence in the pool.
• The GSV Triathlon will take place this coming Sunday (12 February) at Trevor Baker Oval, Sandringham. In 2017, St Catherine’s will send its largest team yet, with over 50 girls taking part. I am extremely excited to see eight students taking on the challenge of competing in the full triathlon. I wish all these girls luck for the weekends competition.
• Finally we wish Mayuri Muralidharan (Year 8) well as she heads off to the Australian Institute of Sport for the Australian Fencing Training Camp. Mayuri has been training extremely hard over the break as she prepares for an exciting year ahead…watch this space!

Please continue to make yourself aware of the Mystcatherines Sport Page, all fixtures, teams and training information can be found through the sporting links on this site.

Mr Lloyd Knight
Head of Sport

JANUARY ROWING REPORT 2017

January has been an exciting month for the St Catherine’s Rowing program.

NAGAMBIE ROWING CAMP

Years 10, 11 and 12 rowers commenced their training on 14 January in Melbourne, preparing themselves for a five day camp in Nagambie.

Nagambie has been our home for the Rowing Camp for the past four seasons. It has many benefits for a camp with the main being access to a two kilometre race course, as well as the sheltered water of the Goulburn River. It did offer a variety of conditions with Day Two exceeding 40 degrees and Day Three struggling to top 25. However, students managed themselves extremely well through all conditions.

A key focus of the Camp was ensuring students were preparing well for sessions, and managing themselves professionally in their recovery post sessions, so we could achieve consistent on-water training. The efforts from the girls in these off-water processes enabled them to string together improving on-water performances. The improvement seen in coaches, coxes and rowers throughout the Camp was massive.

However, it could not have been achieved without the honest efforts of students over their time off during their January holidays. A comprehensive training program was provided to students which would maintain (if not improve) their fitness while away from Rowing. Students arrived at Day One of Camp fit and healthy, which then enabled them to perform.

Visits from teaching staff were also highlights of the Camp, as we continue to enjoy massive support from St Catherine’s School.

The Camp concluded with our annual Fish and Chip night, where the girls can kick back, relax and enjoy the evening with some comfort food.

A huge thanks to our coaches, Mr Lloyd Knight for staffing the Camp. But most importantly to the girls for representing the School so well.

Two Senior 8s Qualified for the Australian National Rowing Championships in Sydney

Each year on January camp, Senior rowers complete the “Benchmark Paddling Test”. This was the fifth annual benchmark paddling test, in order to qualify crews to compete at the Australian National Rowing Championships.

Passing this test is an indication of a crews capability to be competitive with the best crews in the country. The test is 4 x 2,000m laps of the Lake Nagambie Rowing course, rowed at 20 strokes per minute (Stroke Rate 20). To pass the test, a crew’s average time for the four efforts needs to be a maximum of 8:10.0 for the four laps or 77.60% of Junior World Championships gold medal speed. Each year we rely on data gathered, and analysis of, Nationals results to set the required average times for the test.

Last year’s girls rowing the ‘Geraldine Ilott’, went on to win the 2016 National Championships.

This year, girls rowing the ‘St Catherine’s 120’ smashed the test scoring 80.28% of gold medal speed. The girls rowing the ‘Geraldine Ilott’ also passed the test scoring 77.74%. This means we are entering two Senior 8s in the Australian National Rowing Championships. Both boats have demonstrated that they have the capability to be competitive with the best Schoolgirl Rowing Crews in the country.

Students will depart for Nationals in Sydney on 29 March, and will compete until 2 April 2017.

BARWON REGATTA 2017

On Saturday 30 January, St Catherine’s School Senior Rowers competed in the 2016 Barwon Regatta, on the Barwon River in Geelong.

 The Senior 8+s

Both Senior 8+s faced off against their main rivals for the 2016/2017 season. The girls experienced a solid day of racing, competing in both the Schoolgirl and Underage (U19 and U21) events giving a total of four races for each rower for the day.

It was an exciting day for the squad as a collective. For the first regatta in my time at St Catherine’s School, both Senior 8’s featured in A finals in each of their events for the day.

Schoolgirl Events

The “St Catherine’s 120” were strongest in their heat and finished with a convincing win in the A Final over Geelong Grammar and Loreto.

The “Geraldine” were strongest in their heat of the Schoolgirls event. However, their A final wasn’t as strong where they came third behind MLC and Geelong College.

U21 Racing – St Catherine’s 120

The girls were at the height of their fatigue levels going into the A final, and despite possessing the fastest start in the competition, were rowed through by MLC in the dying stages of the race to finish second. As coaches we were very pleased with the effort of the girls, as well as the consistency of the rhythm. Crews will be completing a training block which will target our mid race speed to enable crews to consolidate their start speed.

St Catherine’s 120

Coxed by Isabel Gray

Stroke – Alexandra Stopp

Seven – Juliet Grant

Six –  Elsa Robertson

Five – Eleanor Millear

Four – Sasha Christian

Three – Stephanie Ferrali

Two – Annabel Joubert

Bow – Sarah Wilson

Geraldine Ilott

Coxed by Lily Arnoul

Stroke – Alexandra McBain

7 – Olivia Kempton

6 – Georgia Deacon

5 – Julia Rossi

4 – Sarah Fenton

3 – Bridget Lieberman

2 – Hannah Otto

Bow – Mietta Charlwood

It’s been a great holiday training period for all our Senior rowers. We are greatly looking forward to them progressing throughout this Term as we build for Head of the Schoolgirls.

MORONGO REGATTA 2017

On Saturday 4 February our Junior and Intermediate rowers experienced their first regatta of the 2017 year at the Morongo Regatta on the Barwon River in Geelong. This regatta was a great display of the hard work all our girls have put in over the holidays and through camp.

This was a historic day for St Catherine’s School, as we completed our first team regatta win, winning the Morongo Cup. Intermediate crews led the charge, with an encouraging performance winning the overall Intermediate Trophy, bringing home 5/6 divisions wins and division second place.

All of our students have greatly benefited and learned from this recent experience of racing and will continue to improve from the Morongo Regatta. With our foot firmly planted on the accelerator we will keep building momentum as we come closer to HOSG.

Junior Crews

Intermediate Crews

Mr David Fraumano
Head Rowing Coach