St Catherine’s Track and Field Wrap

It’s been a big couple of weeks for the St Catherine’s Track and Field Team as they have competed within the pointy end of the competition season.

Major competitions kicked off with the GSV Division 1 Track and Field Championships. This day was packed full of highlights, however, ultimately the most exciting part of the day was the point score. Here eight schools jostled it out, in one of the closest Championships contested in GSV history. At days end, only 74 points separated 3^rd to 8^th place. This was quite remarkable considering the team’s score was more than 700 points. St Catherine’s finished a very strong 6^th overall, however rued some missed opportunities late in the relay events. This certainly left a little fire in the belly for the GSV Finals Evening to come.

The GSV Finals Evening is the pivotal individual athletics competition within the GSV season. It brings together the top 8/12 athletes in each event across the three divisions. This event always brings out the best in schoolgirl competitors, highlighting the skills and competiveness of girls within the GSV. Once again, St Catherine’s produced the goods with many athletes achieving personal bests and a medal tally of three gold, seven silver and three bronze medals. Some notable outstanding performances included:

Throws:

• Olivia Nigido-Scott (Year 7) threw a massive personal best of 11.15m in the Shot Put, breaking her own GSV record of 10.97 and winning the GSV Finals Title. Olivia also recorded a GSV victory in the Discus.
• Georgia Deacon (Year 12) finished her time at St Catherine’s in style, throwing the shot put 10.57m to achieve a personal best and a silver medal in the event.
• It was extremely exciting to see three new students qualify for finals nights. Hope Kudelka (Year 10), Sophia Rothfield (Year 10) and Maggie Dryden (Year 7) had outstanding seasons and learnt a lot from the experience.

Jumps:

• Ingrid Crossing (Year 12), once again provided some wow factor to the program clearing impressive heights in the High Jump. Her jump of 1.55m resulted in a silver medal on the night.
• Celia Cody (Year 10) also jumped extremely well. Celia has been working on her run up and speed into the bar all season and as a result produced a 1.53m high jump to claim the silver medal in the Year 10 event.
• Harriette Dryden (Year 10) and Harriet Fortey (Year 9) highlighted their determination and improvement throughout the season both jumping high on finals night. Both girls have been jumping consistently over 4.50m all season and should be congratulated for the effort they have put in.

Middle Distance:

• Emily Sutherland (Year 10) produced one of the most exciting races of the night. In quite a strong field, Emily produced an outstanding kick finish and raced hard to the line to record a new personal best of 2.24 and claim the bronze medal in the event.
• Isabelle Dann (Year 11) put it all on the line in the 800m and 1500m events. Running extremely competitive races, full of surges and kick downs, Isabelle gave it her all finishing 4^th in both events.

Sprints:

• Annelise Cody (Year 10) lifted another gear on the night. She finished with silver medals in both the 100m and 90m hurdles. However, the highlight of the Championships came in the 400m, where she broke the 60-second barrier for the first time, running 59.41, to take victory.
• Elodie Ferrali (Year 8) also had a great night sprinting and hurdling. Her time of 62.88 claimed her the silver medal in the Year 8 400m.

Relays:

• Our Year 8 (Georgina Vote, Elodie Ferrali, Tamsin Sleigh and Alexandra Demetriou) and Year 11 (Camilla Broome, Juliet Grant, Isabelle Dann and Stephanie Ferrali) 4x100m teams competed extremely well qualifying for the finals.
• The biggest highlight of the night was the hotly contested 4x400m. This race allows four students across Years 7– 12 to come together to compete against the best of the best. Throughout the season this event had been extremely competitive and finals night appeared to be ultimate test of the school girl team. The team of Elodie Ferrali (Year 8), Juliet Grant (Year 11), Emily Sutherland (Year 10) and Annelise Cody (Year 10) gave it all in what turned out to be an extremely tight finish. The girls finished in 5th place.

St Catherine’s also took on a number of Athletics Victoria competitions throughout the season. Our teams competed extremely well at the Track Relay Championships and the Schools Knockout Championships. The Knockout Champions, St Catherine’s, entered both a Junior and Senior Girls team. Our Junior team of Elodie Ferrali (Year 8), Georgina Vote (Year 8), Alexandra Demetriou (Year 8), Chloe Joubert (Year 8) and Olivia Nigido-Scott (Year 7) finished 4^th out of 28 teams across the state. This was a remarkable effort by all the girls involved. The Senior girls finished 6^th out of 16 teams across the state. Some notable performances included:

• Millie Fraser-Smith (Year 9) who threw a massive javelin through of 31.18m, to finished 3^rd overall in the senior girls event.
• Congratulations to Annelise Cody (Year 10) and Elodie Ferrali (Year 8) who both achieved national qualification standard for the 100m hurdles and 90m hurdles respectively.

I would to thank our Year 12 Track and Field captains, Ingrid Crossing (Year 12) and Elsa Robertson (Year 12), along with all our other Year 12s who gave outstanding service across their many years at St Catherine’s. As always, behind such strong performances is a very talented and capable team of coaches and support staff. I’d like to thank our team coaches; Ms Susan Hobson, Mr Harry Roubin, Ms Ange Phillips, Mr Lee Naylor, Mr Tom O’Connor, Mr Cassidy Shaw, Mr Nick Meahan and Miss Anula Costa for the hard work they have put in towards guiding the girls to achieve their best.

Finally, I would also like to thank all the parents who supported the team at the various competitions throughout the season. You are very much a part of the team as well.

We look forward to next year’s Athletics Season.

Term 3 GSV Weekly Sport Competition

Last week, saw the end of the Term 3 GSV Weekly Sport Competition. Once again, large numbers of students participated in Term 3 sport, demonstrating commitment, teamwork and a desire to develop their skills. This was highly evident in the Intermediate Soccer Team who travelled to Templestowe needing a win against Our Lady of Sion to secure top spot in their zone and progress to finals. In wet and muddy conditions, a tight contest was to ensue. After a tense start, the deadlock was broken thanks to a Hope Kudelka cross that was neatly placed into the back of the net by Jasmyn Jiang. The team was able to hold on to the 1-0 lead and progress to the finals.

A meeting with the undefeated MLC was up next. The team excitedly travelled to Bastow Reserve where the rain began to fall as soon as the whistle signalled the opening kick-off. While the result didn’t go the way the girls had hoped, they are to be very proud of the effort they put in. Determined defending by Harriette Dryden (Year 10) and Phoebe Keilar (Year 10) as well as some excellent midfield passing by Stella Ainalis (Year 9) and Heidi Tokatlidis (Year 10) were highlights of the performance. As was the outstanding penalty save by first time goalkeeper Jennifer Madgwick (Year 9). We congratulate all players and their coaches, Mr Adrian Puckering and Mr Alex Borlenghi on their achievements this term.

Likewise, we congratulate Mr Brad Hicks and the Junior C Badminton Team who rounded out a fantastic season on the court. They went undefeated in four matches to win the pennant for their zone.

Training sessions have commenced for Term 4 sports, with students honing their skills ahead of the cricket and basketball seasons that will start in the first week back. All details can be found on the Sports Portal Page.

Mr Nick Racina, Assistant Head of Sport

Gymnastics Term 4 Enrolment Open

Term 4 Gymnastics Online enrolment is now open. Enrolment is open for both current and new students. Click here for the enrolment link.

Any queries should be emailed to Cherie Johnstone cjohnstone@stcatherines.net.au