SQUASH VICTORIA STATE SCHOOLS FINALS

Our illustrious sporting stars of McKinnon headed out to Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre to compete in the Squash Victoria State Schools Squash Finals. This tournament is open to all private, catholic and public schools across the state.

We had seven teams representing each age group for the school at the Regional Finals and six of them made the State Finals. Our Junior Boys and Girls teams were the first to hit the courts and recorded wins in the round matches, but were unable to playoff for medals. The boys finished in 6th place with the girls finishing in 3rd place.

Next up was our talented intermediate team that looked set to tear up the courts with their hard hitting squash smarts. The boys battled all day and gave their all to finish 6th, while the girls fell agonisingly short of a medal narrowly missing out on the 1st and 2nd playoff to finish off a terrific day coming in 3rd place. Well done girls!

Lastly you can’t go past our Senior team representing the college for the final time in their schooling career, they put everything they had into these games and reaped the rewards of their hard work. The boys fought gallantly and narrowly lost their last pool match. They would have to playoff for 3rd place and easily accounted for Staughton College. While the Senior Girls team played an exceptional day knocking off the teams that came into their path until, ironically, they met Staughton College who were too strong in the Final beating the girls 2 sets to 1. Congratulations to Michelle Pits, Eliza Fischer, Breanna Whitehead and Ella Speak finishing Runners Up in the state.

A big thankyou to the coaches, Mr Cukierman, Miss Gordon and Mr Blackwood who assisted with selections and trainings over the last two terms.

Tim Blackwood

Coach

2015 ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

The 2015 Athletics Carnival was a great success with ten new records being set and 115 students qualifying to compete at the Kingston Division Championships.

Record breakers were:

Genevieve O’Brien in the 1500m
Hunter Ennor in the 400m
Sophie Highnam in the 800m & 1500m
Charlotte Soteriou in the Triple Jump
Will Sharp in the 400m
Jason Clayton in the 1500m
Will Ockenden in the 1500m
Nick Rayson in the 400m
Jack Highnam in the 1500m

The age group winners for the 2015 carnival are:

13 & Under Will Sharp and Genevieve O’Brien
14 Years Lucas Thompson and Arwen Verdnik
15 Years Joe Inglis and Jemma Owen
16 Years Will Ockenden and Melina Ayres
17 Years Nick Rayson and Charlotte Soteriou
18 Years Terence Andreadis and Hannah Cole

The final scores for the House Cup were very close…

In 4th place with 941 points was Flynn
In 3rd place with 976 points was Chisholm
In 2nd place with 1188 points was….. Gilmore
In 1st place with 1215 points was Monash.

Following on from the school carnival, the Athletics Team had its sights set on conquering the Kingston Division Championships once again. The 115 students were great ambassadors for the school, with 54 students qualifying to compete at the SMR championships, also bringing home the Junior Boys, Intermediate Girls & Boys, Senior Girls & Boys, Girls Aggregate, Boys Aggregate and overall Kingston Division Winners Flags.

Good luck to all the Athletes who are competing on Thursday 8 October at Casey Fields.

Jennifer Pemberton

Coach

SENIOR BOYS SOCCER: STATE FINALS REPORT

On Tuesday 1 September the McKinnon Senior Boys Soccer team competed in the State Finals at Darebin. The team had earlier won the Kingston District beating Parkdale and had defeated Hampton Park in a tense penalty shootout win at the Southern Metropolitan Regional Finals.

The team were confident that they could do well on the day and were drawn to compete in Pool B against Galen College in Wangaratta, Thornbury Secondary College from the Northern Metropolitan Region and Mt Clear Secondary College from Ballarat.

Unfortunately the team did not perform to the same earlier standards they had met whilst getting to the State Finals. The team lost all three games on the day but still performed admirably and never gave up. They lost 1-0 to Galen College after conceding an early goal from a set piece, 3-0 to eventual State Finalists Thornbury and 3-1 to Mt Clear.

I think it was still a massive effort to get to the last eight in the State and I am supremely proud of the boys and their efforts. The team trained once a week on average from about late April and they gave me much joy in their willingness to listen and take on board my ideas of how I wanted them to play. While I congratulate all the squad on their efforts, in particular, I would like to thank the captain Rahul Thimmareddy for his efforts in helping organise the team and stepping up back in May when the team needed leadership and he provided it. I would also like to thank Liam Adlington for helping me on the day and both Mr Bridges and Mr Noble for their support enroute to the State Finals.

The squad was: Harry Amner, Zane Bowen, Matej Cubic, Con Georgiadis, Bryan D’Souza, Max Griffin, Duc Hoang, Harry Huo, Ashwin Jayaprakash, Chris Kaev, Tony Kim, Tom Lo Casto, Calvin Loh, Aristotle Otis, Theo Papageorgiou, Daniel Rockman, Captain Rahul Thimmareddy, Jiawei Thing and John Villanueva.

Jonathan Jhoomun

Coach

VICTORIAN SCHOOLS LACROSSE COMPETITION

Congratulations to our Senior Girls and Boys Lacrosse teams who played for the first time in this very competitive all schools competition in Altona on Monday 7 September.

Both teams did exceptionally well to play off in the Finals in bleak and blustery conditions.

The Boys team in Division 2 played off in the Grand Final but lost to Bendigo Secondary College 4-1.

The Girls team playing in Division 1 played off for Bronze losing in extra time to Mater Christi. Well done to all students for being great ambassadors.

Go McKinnon!!

Carole Hooper

Head of Junior Sport

ATHLETICS ALL SCHOOLS KNOCK OUT CHAMPIONSHIPS

On Thursday 10 September a group of students from Years 7 and 8 competed in the Victorian All Schools Knock Out Championship. Held at the Mecca of Victorian athletics, the Lakeside Stadium, the championships featured schools from around the state, both metropolitan and regional.

McKinnon entered one boy and girl team in the Junior Division of the championships. Each team consisted of five people: Arwin Verdnik, Emma Hatting, Genevieve O’Brien, Gemma Strangio and Kylie Wei for the girls and Sam Kristensen, Jason Clayton, Jackson Hannah, Will Sharp and Xavier Verdnik for the boys. We were also joined by an injured Lucas Thompson, who was enlisted to assist with the results of each race. Each team competed in the 100m, 800m, long jump, hurdles, shot put and javelin events and the 4x200m relay. Everyone from McKinnon performed with distinction, with the boys placing 5/23 and the girls 15/24 but unfortunately, neither the boys nor the girls progressed to the National Final.

Overall it was an exhilarating experience: pitting ourselves against some of the best junior athletes in Victoria and racing on the dazzling blue track that was made even more spectacular by the warm and sunny weather. Congratulations to each of the students who competed on the day and a big thank you to Miss Carter and Miss Pemberton for organising our participation and chaperoning the team on the day.

Gemma Strangio

Student

YEAR 8 BOYS SOCCER

On Wednesday 9 September the Year 8 Boys Soccer team played in the State Finals at the Darebin International Sports Centre. Throughout the district matches to make it to the State Final, the boys successfully defeated nine school teams and only conceded two goals in total.

During the Finals the boys won all three pool matches (1-0, 1-0, and 5-0) to earn their place in the Grand Final of the State Championship. The boys lost the Grand Final against Lavalla 1-0 to finish at the Number 2 Ranked Team in the State.

Congratulations to team members William Atchison, Liston Diaz, Eden Harvey, Josh Hunt, Tom Johnston, Denver Kan, Paul Laucher-Linares, Jack Mills, James Murray, Liam O'Brien, Michael Pupko, Lucas Semple, Stefan Simic, Billy Zontanos and Ariel Tenenberg.

Phillip DeSalvo

Coach

YEAR 7 TOUCH RUGBY GALA DAY - KINGSTON DIVISION

The Year 7 Touch Rugby Gala Day on Wednesday 8 September was an outstanding success as a showcase of the skills and excitement of Touch Rugby. Our Year 7 Boys and Girls spent all of Term 3 improving their skills with the assistance of Touch Rugby Victoria and their enthusiastic and knowledgeable coaches.

On the day, the McKinnon Girls A team (Coco Parker, Sarsha Van Denderen, Louise Roberts, Erisha Tayal, Sophie Roberts, Isabella Bullas and Jaz Hackett) put in three wonderful performances beating the McKinnon Girls B team (3-1) then drawing against the super skilled Parkdale (1-1) and beating Brighton (1-0).

In the final, McKinnon played Parkdale and despite several impressive drives forward failed to score. However, McKinnon fended off every Parkdale attack and the final score of 0-0 meant that McKinnon won the day on a countback scoring more times than Parkdale.

The McKinnon Boys competed across two divisions, the Championship and Plate tournaments. In the Plate tournament McKinnon entered three teams who would play against Parkdale, Bentleigh and each other. The boys improved their skills and tactical awareness rapidly through playing these matches, with McKinnon Red and McKinnon White playing it off for 3rd place in the tournament.

The Championship team comprising of Callan Newell, Mannie Psarakis, Eithan Shapiro, Will Sharp, Kaleb Thomson and Billy Thurgood made a good start beating Bentleigh (2-1) in their opening match. The next match saw the formation of the McKinnon wall, led by Sergeant Callan Newell and Billy Thurgood, proving too tight for Parkdale to penetrate, seeing us to victory (3-0). In the third game we were able to stretch our legs with some smart inside work from “the brains” Kaleb Thomson and Eithan Shapiro, delivering outside on a number of occasions to “speedy gonzales”, Mannie Psarakis and the quick footed Will Sharp, beating Brighton (5-0).

In the final, it was the re-match of McKinnon Vs Bentleigh, fighting it out for the Kingston Division Pennant. McKinnon came out to play, dominating early to draw first blood. Bentleigh found it hard to break through the McKinnon wall, until a moment of strategic magic saw the equalising try scored in the final minute of the match, leaving scores level. The match went into extra time with each team losing a player at each end until the final result. We started with six a side, then down to five, then down to four. It was nail biting stuff from the sidelines watching the boys give it their all, but in the end Bentleigh got over the line with some awesome footwork, passing and strategy (2-1).

Jason Evans (Girls Coach)

Paul King (Boys Coach)

SUCCESS STORIES

UNDER 17 NATIONAL CRICKET CHAMPIONSHIPS