Last Wednesday, shrouded in what may be the last sunny day of the year, the Senior School held the annual House Athletics Carnival at Duncan Mackinnon Reserve.

The House Athletics Cup was on the line as students passionately contested each of the events to gain precious points for their House. 

Aside from the traditional Athletics events, students enjoyed a range of novelty events, including tunnel ball and an incredibly competitive rendition of the egg and spoon race. Additional points were awarded during the ‘House Chants’ segment, as the girls displayed their pride for their respective Houses with choreographed dances and songs that echoed loudly throughout the grandstands. Congratulations to Beaulieu Blair for taking out the House Chant competition.  

Some stand-out track and field performances included Emma Froomes (Year 12 Beaulieu Blair) who jumped an impressive 1.52m in the High Jump. The Stafford sisters of Holmes Kilbride took out both the Years 9 to 10, 800m race (Chamonix), and the Years 11 to 12, 800m race (Matisse). We also saw a tight finish in the Year 12, 4 x 100m relay, with Davis taking out the win. The much anticipated 8 x 100m student and staff race, in which one student from each Year level, plus two staff members, join to form a team, was taken out by Holmes Kilbride. 

The leader board was constantly shuffling throughout the day as the various track and field events were hotly contested, however, it was Holmes Kilbride that was victorious at the conclusion of the event by an incredibly narrow margin of 11 points! 

Holmes Kilbride – 1319 points 

Davis – 1307 points 

Beaulieu Blair – 1247 points 

Langley Templeton – 1146 points 

In our ‘showcase’ races, the top 10 runners in the 100m from Year 7 and from Years 8 to 12 contested the ‘Junior Flyer’ and ‘Blue Ribbon’ 100m races. The ‘Junior Flyer’ event was won by Clover Roche from Holmes Kilbride in a time of 13.81 seconds. The ‘Blue Ribbon’ event was won by Lily Taylor from Langley Templeton in 13.69 seconds. This is Lily’s second win in a row. 

As always, it was great to see such a large level of energy, enthusiasm, and House spirit throughout the day. A big thank you to all staff and our student House Leaders for their support. 

A gallery of images from the day’s events is available on the myPhotos platform on mystcatherines.