It has been a fantastic Term of Sport with huge numbers of students participating in the GSV Weekly Competition. Record numbers were seen at Tennis training sessions, with over 75 Years 7 and 8 students attending on a weekly basis as well as over 50 Years 9 to 12 students. All GSV teams ably represented St Catherine’s and achieved numerous successes. A special mention must go to the Intermediate A and B Tennis Teams, who were highly competitive all season, missing finals by percentage only. The Junior Softball Team have regularly experienced over 30 students attending training each week and similarly, missed a finals berth only by percentage. The Senior Softball Team was also very competitive, their outstanding win against the seemingly unbeatable Star of the Sea has been described as ‘a win for the ages’. Finally, the fantastic Junior Tennis A Team who clearly won their Zone and narrowly missed a spot in the Grand Final (see match report below).

A lot of learning, fun and school spirit was seen amongst all GSV participants. Particularly at the new Monday morning tennis development session; this open training session was a great opportunity for students to gain expert coaching advice and further develop their skills. Throughout Term 2, the Monday morning session will be dedicated to netball and is open to all Senior School students wishing to develop. This will commence on Monday 1 May.

Looking ahead, training sessions for Term 2 GSV sports will commence in the first week. Parents and students have been emailed the relevant information letters and these details will be uploaded to the Sports Portal. We are looking forward to a great term of Netball, Hockey, AFL and Water Polo.

Go St Catherine’s!

Mr Nick Racina, Assistant Head of Sport

The Junior A St Catherine’s Tennis Team had an amazing season, finishing first on the ladder and placing first in their Zone! With this exciting win, on Thursday last week, the girls headed off to Melbourne Park, to compete in the Finals for a chance to take out the Overall Winners of GSV Junior Tennis.

This team of talented players consisted of:

• Eloise Kewley and Anouk Heidenreich
• Annabel Sweetnam and Ruby Seymour
• Chloe Joubert and Eliza Seymour
• Stella Heidenreich and Eliza Mailer
• Emergency: Charlotte Stern

The girls’ first match included some exciting tennis against MGGS, with the majority of pairs having convincing wins, coming out victors with 4 sets to 0. Special mention must go to Eloise and Anouk who won eight games to seven in an intense tie breaker.

In the Semi-Final, St Catherine’s came up against the favourites and number one ranked team, Star of the Sea. The girls were all very determined to ensure a win. The match was extremely close, with the result coming down to only one game! With two sets each, Star narrowly defeated St Catherine’s on game difference (25/24 games).

Mr Racina and I were extremely proud of all of the girls’ efforts and we are very impressed with the incredible skills and standard of tennis throughout the season.

Ms Juliette  Cody, Sports Coaching Assistant

House Cross Country

Congratulations to Davis House who took out the St Catherine’s School House Cross Country Event. In an extremely close event Davis just edged out Beaulieu Blair by three points! Annelise Cody recorded the fastest time of the day, 6.43 to win the Intermediate Division. While Alexandra Demetriou and Alexandra Stopp won the Junior the Senior Division respectively.

The House Cross Country marks the start of the St Catherine’s School Cross Country Program, which will begin its training in Term 2 in preparation for the GSV Cross Country Championships and Athletics Victoria State Relay Championships. Looking forward to a fantastic season ahead.

GSV Swimming and Diving

It has been a jammed couple of weeks for the St Catherine’s GSV Swimming and Diving Teams, which culminated in the GSV Finals evening on Tuesday 28 March. After strong results at the GSV Championships where our swimming team finished a strong 3^rd in Division 2 and our Divers challenged the best in Division 1, we had a talented group who progressed to the biggest carnival of the GSV Calendar – the Finals Evening which qualifies only the top 10 individual and relay performances across the entire 3 Divisions of GSV.

In the Diving, Year 11 Laetitia Donato had an outstanding night performing four challenging dives and was rewarded with a bronze medal in the Senior, Year 11 and 12 event. We congratulate Laetitia on her outstanding season.

In the Swimming, we had four individual St Catherine’s students qualify to represent the School in eight events. Year 7 Zara Bongiorno, the youngest to qualify, performed extremely well and gained invaluable experience finishing 8^th in the Year 7 50m Butterfly. Year 8 Elodie Ferrali qualified in both the Year 7-8 100m Freestyle and Year 8 50m Backstroke. The Backstroke was the strongest of Elodie’s events, where she recorded an impressive 5^th in a time of 34.78seconds. Year 9 Jane Fenton qualified in the Year 9 50m Butterfly and Backstroke, her strongest performance in backstroke where she finished 5^th in a time of 33.09 seconds. Stephanie Ferrali was our fourth St Catherine’s qualifier, finishing 5^th in the Year 11 Backstroke in a time of 34.38 seconds.

Off the back of some extremely spirited relay performances at the GSV Championships, the St Catherine’s girls did an outstanding job in qualifying six relays teams for the Finals Evening. Our Year 7 team of Lucy Bainbridge, Lili Holmes, Zara Bongiorno, Madeleine Hooker and Alexandra Oliphant did extremely well qualifying for both the Medley and Freestyle relay, finishing 6^th and 9^th respectively. Our Year 10 team of Celia Cody, Harriette Dryden, Heidi Tokatlidis and Lily Trosdal Ryan also qualified for both relays, performing very well and demonstrating great maturity in their racing, finishing 8^th in both events. Our Year 8 team of Elodie Ferrali, Sara Zayontz, Chloe Joubert and Isabella Mangano and Year 9 team of Jane Fenton, Harriet Fortey, Isobel Tanner and Romy Cantwell both qualified for the Freestyle relay, finishing 9^th and 6^th respectively.

I would like to thank our GSV Swim and Dive coaches and staff, Mrs Jenny De Nardis, Mr Mark Cooper, Ms Annabel Young and Ms Hannah Whiteside for all the hard work and effort in preparing both teams. It was so pleasing to see such a young and enthusiastic group of Swimmers and Divers contributing to such a positive and exciting team environment. We look forward to continuing to improveing and developing both programs into next season.

A reminder to all students if they are looking to continue on with their Swimming, there are plenty of opportunities to do so through our St Catherine’s Swimming Squads and St Catherine’s Aquatics Club. Please visit mystcatherines or speak directly with Mr Mark Cooper for further information.

Well done to both the St Catherine’s GSV Swimming and Diving Squads!

Mr Lloyd Knight, Head of Sport