Sport: RUBY STEVENS -AN AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION

Congratulations Year 9 Ruby Stevens, who is a National Champion in the sport of Canoe Marathon.

The 15-year old won the title at the Paddle Australia Canoe Marathon Championships, at Encounter Bay, Victor Harbour in South Australia.

Ruby, a member of the Yarrawonga Mulwala Amateur Canoe Club, was part of a pairing that won the K/S W2 (Women’s Doubles) Under 16 race over 7km.

Stevens has also previously won multiple State Titles, including in 2022 at the Victorian State Kayak Championships, as a Year 7, winning the Under 14 Women’s Singles over 12km along the Barwon River in Geelong (in a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes), and then the Under 16 Doubles the next day, stepping up an Age Group and defeating pairings from some of the biggest clubs from the Yarra River in Melbourne.

She is our school’s first Australian Champion in any sport, since runner Jack Boulton won the Under 18 400m at the Australian Athletics Championships in Sydney, when a Year 11 in 2021. Jack won 5 National Gold Medals (100m, 200m and 400m) as a schoolboy, and in 2019 broke the 31-year old Under 16 400m Australian all-time record, becoming the first in history to go under 48 seconds.

Prior to Boulton, it was Year 8 Riley Corke in 2018, in the Cross Country Olympic (XCO) Mountain Biking.

Freya Clarke (Skiing 2015), Xanthea Dewez (Skiing 2013), James Boal (Cycling 2010), and Aislinn Kildea (Skiiing, multiple years in the 2000s) are others we have record of doing so this century. We will announce a complete list soon.

Ruby is one the nominees for the extremely prestigious Sportsperson Of The Year award, which will presented at our Presentation Night next Wednesday 18th December at the Wangraratta PAC. Merlin Tzaros won the award last year, and is nominated again this year along with Reuben Smith (Cycling), Lacy Solimo (Equestrian), Ruby Burns (Mountain Biking) and Milly O'Kane (Netball).

Well done Ruby. Best of luck in your competitions in 2025.

Jud Mullins

Sport Coordinator