Merriwa house were triumphant at yesterday's Athletics Carnival, winning the Bruce Revell Shield and making it Back-to-Back wins for the 1st time since 1995, 29 years ago. It's their 4th win in the last 40 years.

Merriwa won by by 165 points from King, Wareena and Ovens at the Bill Eaton Athletics Complex in Appin Street, where a total of 263 students competed.

Final Scores:

1st - MERRIWA - 1,419

2nd - KING - 1,254

3rd - WAREENA - 1,203

4th - OVENS - 1,027

Senior House Captains Cope Swinburne and Sienna Box-Corsini, flanked by their younger Captains, were presented the prestigious Shield by Principal Dave Armstrong at the track, lifting it high as their house members roared in their yellow attire.

They were carried to victory on the backs of their prodigious Year 8 group, who scored 614 points themselves, making them by far the most productive cohort. Next best were the Wareena Year 7s (394), Ovens Year 11s (361) and King Year 7s (294).

Breaking it down further, it was the Merriwa Year 8 girls who were the most Powerful Force, raking in a staggering 353 points alone. Those girls filled the top 6 spots in the Age Group Champion award for that age group - likely unheard of before. They are one of the most impressive groups of girls we have seen.

Three records were broken, and another equalled, at this historic Carnival. The 1st fell in the very 1st race of the day. That was Year 7 Bella Boulton, who ran the 100m in 13.52, shattering the 25-year old record set by Melissa Ashton in 1999, by .43 of a second. That is a huge time fraction in such a short race.

Boulton then shortly afterward broke the 200m record which had stood for 32 years, since Bree Spasojevic set it in 1992. Newmo alerted Bree who was delighted for Bella and sent her congratulations. Spasojevic still holds 9 records- our most all time.

Staggeringly, Boulton then secured her 3rd track record for the day. In the 400m, her time of 1:08.30 equalled Nicole Turnbull's set in 1983, 41 years ago.

Remarkably, Bella confirms that she ran all 3 races with no idea of what the record times were, and could have pushed harder in both the 100m and 400m if she had have been gunning for records.

Boulton had the History Book Editors scrambling all day. We believe she is the 1st person to get the record in the 100-200-400 "Triple Crown" on the same day, in 36 years. That was Gayle Parrot, who did in in 1988 at Year 9. All 3 of those Parrot records still stand 36 years later. Shaun Dennis also did it 3 years prior in 1985 as a Year 12, and for good measure also broke the Triple & High Jump records that carnival. Dennis' 200m and 400m records stood for 37 years until Jack Boulton (Bella's older brother) came along in 2022.

Boulton also becomes the 1st person to get 3 records in the one day since 2005, when Year 7 man mountain Luke Brabazon broke the Discus, Shot Out and Javelin records. Before that, it was Daniel Boyle at Year 7 in 2002, breaking the 100m, 200m and Javelin. He went on to break the 100m and 200m every year for 4 years in a row. Michael Bertalli also did it in 2000, breaking the 800m 1500m and 3000m when in Year 12.

Later in the day, it was Merlin Tzaros who blasted into the history books. He took almost 3 seconds off the 1500m record of Jasper Danielson set in 2018. His time of 4:21.75 is the fastest 1500m on our books of any age group, meaning we will likely be writing Merlin's name into the books at least twice more over the next 2 years. The Team Vic Triathlon team member last year also broke the 1500m record at Upper Hume level in Albury, and also holds the 13 Boys Upper Hume 3000m Cross Country record too (plus one at Primary level for good measure).

Twelve Age Group Champion medals were awarded, calculated from points from each athletes' Top 9 events.

Age Group Champions

13 Girls - Bella Boulton - WAREENA

13 Boys - Leo Woodburne - MERRIWA

14 Girls - Inanay Gilson - MERRIWA

14 Boys - Clarence Lampa - MERRIWA

15 Girls - Jada Ryan - WAREENA

15 Boys - James Chisholm - WAREENA

16 Girls - Milly O'Kane - KING

16 Boys - Cooper Hardman - KING

17 Girls - Pieper Gottschling - KING

17 Boys - Tom Ford - OVENS

20 Girls - Clove Boonzayer - KING

History was made everywhere we looked, and it continued during the Age Group Champion award ceremony. Tom Ford completed a hat trick, making it 4 total, while James Chisholm also claimed his 3rd in a row. Ford & Chisholm are the 1st boys to win 3 in a row since Nathan Boyd in 2019 (who captured his 5th straight when in Year 11), and are two of just 5 boys to do it in the last 15 years.

Ford, who also has 3 Swimming Age Group awards, has a total of 7, and we will check to see where that sits him all-time. Some athlete.

Leo Woodburne, Inanay Gilson and Milly O'Kane claimed back-to-back wins and became Multiple Winners. Like Ford, Milly has won in the Pool too (now boasting 2x Athletics, 2x Swimming), and she's only in Year 9. She was the only one this year to win the Swimming-Athletics Age Group Double.

Milly also achieved what may be the greatest Athletics Carnival performance in our history, winning 8 individual events - something we're not sure has ever been achieved before. And she was home ill the day prior. Due to missing Monday's Javelin and High Jump to illness, we submitted her scores from P.E class in March for those events. Her High Jump was 9cm shy of winner Abbey Waide, meaning that was the only one of her 9 events she didn't win. However if she had been there Monday, 6 months older, and fitter from a full Netball season, and motivated by the competition, could she have made it a Clean Sweep of 9 events? Maybe next year it could happen.

All of this for Milly by the way, on the very same day she was named in the Final 25 Squad of the Under 17 Victorian State Netball team.

The next closest to her 8 wins were Bella Boulton and James Chisholm, who both won 6..

Leo Woodburne created history himself by becoming the 1st to ever win back-to-back 13 Year Age Group Champion awards. Leo won it last year as a Year 7 despite being a further year younger than his fellow Year 7s, and then again this year as a Year 8 competing against the Year 7s who are his age.

Among the 6 first-time winners, Pieper Gottschling joined her older brother Tyler (who won back-to-back in 2016-17), and they become just our 25th set of siblings to have won Age Group Champ.

Some Age Group battles went down to the wire, and the number of events athletes entered was significant (Age Group award points are taken from your "Best 9" events). The closest was the 16 Boys, where Cooper Hardman won it by a solitary point from his mate Luke Macklan. Hardman entering one more event than Macklan may have been the difference. One point is just one 8th place.

In the 20 Boys, Clove Boonzayer (62.5), who like Hardman, entered 1 more event than his Runner Up, held off Lachlan Barbour (61 points) by just just one and a half points. That's just one 7th place. Ned O'Kane was also unlucky on 58.

The next closest was the 14 Boys category, where Clarence Lampa secured his medal by a mere 3 points from Noah Williams. Again, Lampa had one more event under this belt. In the 15 Girls, Jada Ryan won by just 4 points from Lillian Hooper (9 events each), and in the 17 Boys, Tom Ford pipped Jye Laxton by 5, with Ford having one more event. The two gun Year 11 boys finished 1-2 in the Upper Hume Age Group last year in Albury.

Year 7 Paige-Lee Dummett's 79 points would have won it most years. She fell 24 short of the 3x Record Breaker Bella Boulton, however 25 of Boulton's 98 points were extra points awarded for breaking or equalling a record (long-standing tradition). Without the records, Paige-Lee, who entered 1 more event than Bella, would have saluted by 1 point. Next year that battle will be thrilling.

Some athletes dominated in the Field events. Other than Milly, Year 9 James Chisholm was the other Field Prodigy, matching her in winning 5 of the 6 possible Field events - Triple Jump, High Jump, Shot Put, Discus and Javelin (plus 3rd in Long Jump). Year 12 Clove Boonzayer & Bella Boulton were the only athletes to win all 3 Jump events, and Year 12 Lachlan Barbour matched Milly & Chisholm in claiming all 3 throwing events.

Others picked up 2 Field events - River Mackinnon-Burman, Katy Ford, Jansen Robles, Jada Ryan, Lillian Hooper, Cooper Hardman, Jack Ford, Tom Ford, Jye Laxton, Imogen Robinson, Ivy O'Connor and Hannah Lockhart.

There were some seriously eye-raising all-round Track performances. Year 12 Reuben Smith picked up 4 wins from his 5 events, winning the 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, and finishing 2nd in the 100m by one one-hundredth of a second. Impressive versatility from the champion Sprint Track Cyclist.

Year 8 Liv Day was the other overall Track Gun. She won the 100m, 400m, 800m and 1500m, to go with a 3rd in the 200m. She was the only runner to win both the 100m and 1500m - an impressive show of overall running power. Year 12 Jemma Steinlauf was the 3rd runner to win 4 track events - 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m.

Others were dominant in the Middle-Distance events, but not the Sprints. Other than Smith and Day, Year 9 Ryan Winter was the only runner to claim 3 of those - 400m, 800m and 1500m. Others claimed two - Year 7 Paige-Lee Dummett (800m, 1500m), Year 7 Leo Woodburne (800m, 1500m), Year 8 Jed Murray (800m, 1500), Year 10 Luke Macklan (400m, 800m), Wirra Gilson (800mm, 1500m) Year 11 Phoebe Bosley (800m, 1500m),

Some were Sprint Specialists, winning the Glamour Events, the 100m-200 double, but no other track races. Those were Year 7 Teo Valle, Year 8 Noah Williams, Year 9 Casey Sheppard, and Year 10s Cam Sgarioto and Pieper Gottschling.

One step up from that, were the two girls that clinched the rare 100m-200m-400m "Dream Triple". They were Year 9 Milly O'Kane and Boulton of course.

More on Boulton's records. She becomes just the 26th student in the history of the school to hold multiple Athletics records, and the 20th to hold 3 or more. How high can she climb over the next 6 years?

Boulton also stamped her name on to our various Family Honour Boards. She and her older brother Jack are now the only pair of siblings ever, to each hold an Athletics record at the school. Jack has the 200m and 400m records for the 20 Boys, which he set in 2022 when winning Gold in both events at the State Championships. It was poetic that Jack was our guest official on the Starter Gun today.

In further Family History, Bella pushes the Boulton name to the top of our board honouring Parent-Child Winners of our Age Group Champion award. With her dad Jason winning it in 1984 as a Year 7, and Jack claiming it in Year 12 28 years later, they are now one of just 2 families in our history to have a parent and "two" children win the award. The others are the Patrick boys - Craig Patrick who won twice (1986, 1987) followed by his sons Toby (2006, 2010) and Liam (2011, 2012, 2013). Liam happens to hold 5 records, which is equal 4th all-time. Liam ironically had gone the closest to the 100m-200m-400m Triple since Parrot. He broke the 100m and 200m in 2010 at Year 7, but missed the 400m. He however broke the 400m the next two years, both of which still stand 14 years later. He was soon after recruited to Wesley College on an Athletics Scholarship.

The Carnival was a roaring success and will continue annually. Thank you to the 270+ competitors, and every student who came and got involved.

Thank you to our staff who all executed various roles. Especially to those running the events, who were marshalling, timing, measuring, recording and raking sand etc, and on their feet without a Lunch break.

We had a number of significant non-staff helpers. Thank to parent Gemma Kay in particular, who spent most of the day timing the track events. Thanks by the way to the many parents and family members who came to support. Once again, we thank parent and former-teacher Kev McGennan for coming and taking the splendid photographs you see here.

Thank you to our Prefect team for running the BBQ, our Inclusion Hub students for running their Food Stall, and the students helping with Cory Stewart's School Spirit stall. No to mention all student who helped setting up and packing down equipment and gazebos etc.

Particular thank you to the kids helping at the events. In particular Year 8s Lachlan Downing and Jeremy Bagley, who were seen chopping out staff by volunteering to rake the jump pits for well over an hour.

Special thank you to the Wangaratta Little Athletics club and especially their Secretary Alicia Canning, a former student, who allowed us the use of the facility and all of their equipment.

Big thank you to ex-student Jack Boulton as our Starter for all track events. It was a thrill for all to see the 20-year old, cunningly recruited to one of the Staff Relay Teams, blazing around the first bend. I'm not sure those in the neighbouring lanes knew they were racing against a junior National Gold Medalist in the 100m, 200m and 400m, an Australian all-time Record Holder in the 400m, and still holder of 7 junior all-time Victorian Records (2x 100m, 2x 200m, 2x 400m, 1x Long Jump) - probably the greatest junior athlete in Victorian history. Thanks Champ.

Biggest thank you of all goes to Sandy "Newmo" Newman. Our recently-retired Sport Coordinator of 25 years was the one who organised most of this day behind the scenes and the reason for it running Silk Smooth. Today, while handling the high-pressure job of inputting and collating the results, she went over and above to squeeze in the many last-minute entries in order to give absolutely everybody a chance to compete. Thank you from all of us.

We look forward to taking up a monster Bus Load of athletes to the Upper Hume Track & Field Championships in Albury on Thursday 12th September.

Anybody that came 1st an event yesterday, qualifies for Upper Hume. We also take 12 Relay Teams up, made up of those that ran the 4 fastest 100m times for each age group.

Jud Mullins

Sport Coordinator

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