Sport: Upper Hume Athlet

59 of our athletes put on our best performance in recent memory at the School Sport Victoria Upper Hume Track & Field championships on Thursday 12th September at the Les O'Brien Athletics Complex in Albury. 

Competing against Galen, Cathedral and the 5 Wodonga schools, our team set our highest benchmarks this decade in all categories - 59 competitors, 2 All-Time Records, 2 Age Group Champions, 14 Upper Hume Champions (1st place) winning 17 events, 18 Runner-ups, 25 3rd place getters, and 25 athletes, having finished Top 2, qualifying for the Hume Region stage on Thursday October 10th.

For comparison, our 2023 results were: 57 competitors, 1 record, 1 Age Group Champion, 15 winners, 7 Runner-ups, 18 3rd Places, and 20 Hume Region qualifiers. In 2022, it was: 41 competitors, 1 record, no Age Group Champions, and 16 Hume Region qualifiers. 

In overall standings, we were 4th of 8 schools. Our tally of 672 points was just shy of Cathedral College (709) and Galen College (734), with the juggernaut Catholic College Wodonga (867) the champions. Our best finish this decade. And that was without heaps of our strong Seniors, who chose not to compete due to academics. No Year 12s competed at all, only 1 Year 11 girl and 1 Year 10 girl – all of which are strong cohorts talent-wise. On top of this, multiple other key juniors were missing . We will be a good chance to win next year if everyone competes.

Individually, Merlin Tzaros was the star of the day. In the 1st event of the day, the Team Vic Triathle State Team member smashed the all-time record for the Open Age 3000m. He ran it in 9:11.11, more than 3 seconds faster than the previous record, which had stood since 1996, 28 years ago. Remarkably, he is still eligible for that record for 2 more years.

Later in the day, he crushed his 2nd record of the day – the 16 Boys 1500m. This time, the record had stood for 26 years, set in 1998 by one of our own,  Year 12 Michael Bertalli. Merlin’s time of 4:22.53 took almost 4 seconds off Bertalli’s run. It’s a big effort for the 15 year old, who would be in the age group below, if born just 10 days later.

Merlin now holds 4 of the 32 Upper Hume records our students hold, which is more than any other Wangaratta High School student in history. He has leapfrogged heroes Luke Brabazon, Xanthea Dewez and Bree Spasojevic, who all hold 3 each. And he still has 2 more years to come. 

Tzaros is also 6th on the overall All-Time Upper Hume Record list. On that list, Jack Boulton is the greatest ever (10 records), followed by Galen College runners Bella Pasquali and Brittany Nash (8 each), and two other Wodonga athletes from the late 1990s - Scott Martin (6) and Tabitha Dudley. Martin competed in 2 Olympic Games - Beijing 2008 (Shot Put, 21st place) and London 2012 (Discus, 19th place).

Don’t forget to that Tzaros missed the chance to run in 2021 when the Lockdowns cruelly cancelled the event, so he would highly likely have more. Boulton and Pasquali were similarly robbed. However you could suggest Merlin would likely be sitting 4th all-time right now. He also missed the event, and the Cross Country, in 2022 due to illness.

Others to shine on the day were both Wangaratta Rovers footballers - Year 7 Bella Boulton and Year 11 Tom Ford, who both won prestigious Age Group Champion medals. That’s 2 years in a row for Ford, and almost a Hat-Trick – he won 4 events in 2022 on an injured leg, but was narrowly pipped. This year, he narrowly pipped his mate Wirra Gilson.

For Boulton, it’s becoming a big year already, having set 3 all-time records (100m, 200m and 400m) at our Athletics Carnival in August. 

Multiple others impressed in their wins, including 6 juniors. Year 7 girls Bella Boulton (400m by 4.19 seconds) and Paige-Lee Dummett (800m by almost 7 seconds) never looked threatened. Year 8 Jeremy Bagley, who ended up 5th in Victoria last year in the Javelin, obliterated his nearest rival by 8.15m. Fellow Year 8 Leo Woodburne got his Triple Jump by 39cm. Woodburne’s 8E classmate Kaity Ford won her Discus by 2.48m. Another 8E student in Taylah Wyatt, made it a Year 8 sweep in the Javelin, winning hers by 4.27m. She had done some Lunchtime training with Woodwork teacher Matt Martine, a State-level thrower in his day, which may have pushed her to victory. 

There were 3 Intermediate winners. Year 9 Milly O’Kane, last year 5th in at the State Championships, won her Javelin by 2m, despite her back leg still being swollen and not fully recovered from a fractured fibula. Year 10 boxer Luke Macklan won his 800m by more than 3 seconds. And the 3rd winner was James Chisholm, who won his Discus by 6.50m, and Shot Put by 77cm. 

Of the 4 Senior winners, all were boys. Year 11 Wirra Gilson, a late entrant to the Long Jump as the Runner-up at our Carnival, turned the tables on Jye Laxton to get him by 27cm. Anthony Chisholm blitzed his Discus by 4.89m. And both of Tom Ford’s wins were comfortable – Javelin by 1.21m, Triple Jump by 34cm). 

Other than Tom and Merlin, the other multiple event winner was James Chisholm (Discus, Shot Put). Kaity Ford however was just a whisker away from being our 4th, missing out on the Shot Put crown by a mere 3cm.

There were some tremendous Family Achievements. The Ford siblings managed to all become Champions, with Year 10 Jack (Shot Put) and Year 8 Kaity (Discus) following the lead of their older brother Tom (Javelin and Triple Jump).  

Our other set of Sibling Winners were Year 9 James Chisholm (Discus, Shot Put) and older brother Anthony (Discus). The Gilsons were not far away. 

Thanks to all 59 athletes that competed. The way you competed and conducted yourself was flawless, and our vintage gold & Blue singlets looked sensational – your display has lifted our school’s reputation around the region once again.

Thanks to parent and renowned ecologist & wildlife photographer Chris Tzaros for many of the photos shown here. Thank you to the other parents there supporting as well.

Big thank you to staff members Sandy “Newmo” Newman and Jodie Bell, as well as trainee P.E teacherLuke Sheppard, for coming along.

We look forward to reporting on the Hume Region event early in October, which involves 40 schools from this 8th of the State. We had 7 qualify for State Championships in 2023. Can we beat that this year?