SPORT NEWS

YEAR 8 TABLE TENNIS BOYS STATE CHAMPIONS

Eager to prove that last year's state championship win was not a flash in the pan, the quintet of Ren Nagayama, Konstantinos Dimitrakopoulos, Oliver Leung, Jayden Ma and Nayuta Tsuchiya set off to defend their title at MSAC against the state's finest table tennis players. The team breezed past their opposition throughout the group stage to finish 1st in their pool. In their semi-final, their opponent, Alamanda P-9 was no challenge for the team, with McKinnon winning 6 rubbers to nil. 

In the grand final, the McKinnon boys matched up against Balwyn High. This being the same team they played in 2023 for the title. Balwyn's team was strengthened by the addition of a new player, making them a sterner challenge compared to last year. Despite one of our players losing their bat minutes before the grand final, the team were up for the challenge and managed to secure the win (4 rubbers to 2). 

Whilst all players performed admirably on the day, there were several notable performances in the grand final that were worth noting. 

Konstantinos fought tooth and nail in his singles against Balwyn's best player, only to fall agonisingly short of victory with the score in the 5th rubber 14-12. Oliver displayed a flawless performance in his singles, beating his opponent 3-0 with a variety of spin and power. Jayden, the newest member of the team, won his singles three games to two to show his mental strength under pressure.

This win makes it two years in a row for our table tennis team which is a remarkable achievement for our athletes. McKinnon has not won a table tennis state final since 2004 and for this team to win back-to-back is incredible. Going into 2025, we will unfortunately lose our team captain, Ren Nagayama who is returning back to Japan. It will be difficult to replace Ren but we are confident the rest of the team will step up in his absence. 

Special mentions to Ishaan Tiwari and Jasper Wong for assisting on the day as well as the parents who came to support the team.

Mr Chan

Coach

YEAR 8 BOYS CRICKET STATE RUNNERS UP

On Tuesday 3 December the Year 8 Boys Cricket team played at Elgar Reserve Mt Albert. This was a rescheduled match due to rain the previous Wednesday. 

State Semi Final v Hume Grammar

McKinnon won the toss and batted. McKinnon made a modest 76 with Ajay Mehta scoring 38 not out. Somehow, we bowled them out for 61 with some great catching and fielding. Archie Heath took 3 wickets and 2 each to Ajay Mehta, Leith Salwathura and Samarth Bhasin. 

State Final v Rowville

Rowville won the toss and batted. Rowville made a competitive 133 with 1 player making a game winning 82. Samarth Bhasin took 2 wickets. McKinnon then batted and made a low 68 with Ajay Mehta making 33 not out. This defeat led to the team being State Runners Up. 

A wonderful achievement to all players and you should be so proud. 

James Bridges

Coach

YEAR 7 BOYS TABLE TENNIS STATE FINALS

Eager to show their skills against the best of Victoria, the Year 7 Boys Table Tennis Team consisting of Vasileios Dimitrakopoulos, Thien Dinh, Horatio He, Kevin Wang and So Nagayama travelled to MSAC to compete in the state table tennis finals. 

Competing in the first round of the group stage, the team was matched up against Bendigo South East College. The play was quality with some ferocious play from both teams however, McKinnon fell agonisingly short of the win. Whilst they were tied three rubbers a piece, we unfortunately lost by one game. In the subsequent stage, McKinnon were in need of a win to progress to the semi-finals. Up against University High, our students performed admirably but were unable to secure the win. 

Overall, we are proud of their efforts to reach this level of competition. Had a few coin flip moments gone our way, they could have easily progressed even further. Whilst all students put in noticeable performances, the standout effort came from Kevin Wang who won all his rubbers for the day. Thank you to our senior students in Ishaan Tiwari (Year 12) and Jasper Wong (Year 11) for assisting on the day.

Boris Chan

Coach

YEAR 7 LAWN BOWLS

On Tuesday 12 November, we went to Coatesville Bowling Club for a highly anticipated lawn bowls match against Sandringham Secondary. From the beginning, it was clear that this would be no ordinary game - both teams were in top form, and the competition was fierce.

The early rounds were a back-and-forth match, with Sandringham Secondary showing great precision even though they had little practice. Their skip had a solid run, landing bowl after bowl close to the jack, while our team worked hard to adjust to the shifting wind conditions. We found ourselves trailing at one point, but we refused to let the pressure overwhelm us.

Then came the final match. It was up to our B-Team to take home the win. It wasn’t easy but as all the other teams started to gather around the rink the fight truly began. It was a draw and it relied on the last two players. Sandringham got a pretty close bowl and when it was our turn to finish the match off once and for all, our player rolled their bowl extremely close to the jack, winning the match for us!

Michelle Yakovis

Year 7