Kinross Wolaroi takes six medals at rowing Nationals

The Schoolboy’s Coxed Quadruple Scull team were the standout achievers for Kinross Wolaroi at the National Rowing Championships in Nagambie, Victoria on 28 March to 3 April. Kinross Wolaroi topped the School rankings and took home six medals - one gold, three silver and two bronze.

In a field of 95 clubs including major players such as Sydney Uni and ANU, Kinross Wolaroi School achieved an outstanding equal 12th place overall, sharing the position of top performing School in the Championships with St Augustine’s.

Kinross Wolaroi took a remarkable two teams into the Schoolboy’s Coxed Quad Scull ‘A’ Final, in a field of six entries, taking a silver medal with Fletcher Smith, Charlie Neville, Nicholas Brown, Alec Hoskin and cox Angus Petersen. The Schoolboy Quads silver was the first medal the boy teams have won in a number of years at Nationals, showing a resurgence in boys rowing at the School.

The same crew went on to deliver gold in the Schoolboy’s Coxed Quadruple Scull Sprint team against a field that included Cathedral Townsville and Cranbrook School.

The boys scored another silver in the Under 17 Men's Coxed Quadruple Scull for Nicholas Tancred, Tom Day, Oscar Cleary, Oliver Smith and cox Angus Petersen. These boys raced up an age group and will be able to compete in this same division in 2023, when the National Championships head to Champion Lakes in Perth.

Alec Hoskin took a creditable bronze in the Schoolboy’s Single Scull.

The girls’ teams also delivered medals, with a silver in the Under 19 Women’s Coxed Eight, featuring Audrey Gill, Milly Lane, Lucy Searle, Lucy Scammell, Ayla Ryan, Annabelle Woods, Hannah Richardson, Georgia Sweetapple and cox Georgia Robson. There was a bronze for the same four rowers in the Schoolgirl's Coxed Quadruple Scull in the ‘A’ Final.

The Nationals’ result was a great conclusion to a season that saw one of the schools’ best performances across all competitions, even in the face of disruptions from COVID and heavy rain.

Principal Dr Andrew Parry said he was absolutely thrilled with the result.

“We’ve put Kinross Wolaroi on the map as a great rowing school in the last three years,” he said.

“I’m incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication of these students and staff, as well as the commitment of our community to supporting this fabulous sport.

“Rowing develops not only physical ability but also mental toughness and it can take our students further than they can imagine both as a sport and for scholarship opportunities at home and abroad.

“It is all part of a ‘regional heart, global spirit’ philosophy that sees our students enjoy the benefits of our beautiful country location at the same time as having a world of opportunities open to them at school and beyond.”

Ends.

WAS Boys' Touch

On 17 March, 24 of our students attended the WAS trials at Orange Anglican Grammar. Kinross were very successful, with 16 students selected across the U15’s & U18’s as part of the WAS team. This team will now compete at the AICES tournament in Penrith on 5 April. We are very proud and excited for our boys to participate in this day.

Under 15

Billy Hall, Charlie Kiss, Lincoln Robinson, Henry Martel, Harry Dymock, Toby Dowling, Lachy DeVres & Elijah Thaiday-Shinn

Under 18

Charlie Hall, Harry Hazelton, Sam Fabar, Gus O’Neil, Abra Wilson, Ollie Chandler-Sullivan & Zac Mason

Warriors Touch Football Grand Final

What a way to finish the summer touch competition!

After a chaotic 10 rounds and an amiable semi-final, the KWS Warriors were eager for a show-stopping final to the touch football season. Faced with our toughest rival, leadership from Alice Hansen and Erica Stewart set us apart.

An opening try from the excellent distribution of Eden Hawker set the pace and continued commitment from Liv Martin meant that we were always competitive through-out the game. At this point, every try we made was quickly matched by our relentless opponents.

Swift moves from Lily Bruce in the centre and perfect positional play from Laura Atkinson meant we were making all the right plays just struggling to convert and place us comfortably in front.

The persistent attitude from Phoebe Staniforth and the best sideline support from Georgie Lawson meant that if we went into extra-time we weren’t going down without a fight.

A 5-5 draw at full-time meant that anything we had left in the tank needed to come out now! Lucky for us that tank was in the shape of Lily Clarke. After playing a pivotal role throughout the game Lily earnt her the ‘Player of the Match’ title with a game winning try leading the KWS Warriors to a win that should be talked about for many seasons to come.

Congratulations Warriors!

Running

Mrs Penny Chandler

On Sunday 27 March, Luca Telfer (Year 11) completed the 11km Great Volcanic Mountain Challenge, culminating at the summit of Mount Canobolas. Luca finished in 1 hour 14 minutes, 1st in the under 19 age group, earning him the Young Man Canobolas Trophy. To put it in perspective, this challenging run is a qualifier for the NSW Team for the National Mountain Running Championships.

Another great achievement came from Max Horne in Year 7 who finished 2nd in the under 15 age group in a time of 1:08:15.

KWS Triathlon Team volunteering at Orange Parkrun

Mrs Penny Chandler

Part of the training during Triathlon season includes a weekly timed run at Orange Parkrun, a 5km course at Gosling Creek. Parkrun is a free community event run entirely by volunteers. On Saturday 26 March the KWS Triathlon Team volunteered their time to give back to the community and the group that have provided us with such great training opportunities. Students and staff provided on-course marshalling, time keeping, barcode scanning and tail walkers for the 175 walkers, joggers and runners.

Polocrosse

Mrs Heidi Anthony

Last week three Kinross Wolaroi students played for NSW in the Australian Polocrosse Nationals, held in Ballarat. Zoe Stevenson, Ryan Weston and Erica Stuart (all in Year 9) played in the NSW Open Junior Team. They competed throughout the week, making it to the Grand Final on Saturday, where they were defeated in a tough game by a very strong Queensland side.

Erica was awarded the best No. 2 player in the Junior Mixed division for the competition, which is a wonderful achievement.

Erica’s older sister Julia Stuart (Class of 2020) played for NSW in the Under 21 Women’s team. They won the National Championship, defeating Queensland in a nail biting final.

Julia was awarded the Best No. 2 player in the Under 21 Women’s division.

Congratulations to all involved on these incredible results!

Rugby

Mr Matt Tink, Rugby MIC

After a tough four rounds of the Jakiya Whitfeld Cup, our Girls' Rugby 7s competition has come to an end.

The final day of competition saw our girls teams severely depleted by a couple of injuries and a huge amount of illness. They had played three weeks of excellent rugby and every team had played their way into the major semi-final. Unfortunately, none of the Kinross Wolaroi teams made the Grand Finals. Our girls were severely down on numbers to the point where they were forced to bring younger girls up to support them. None of this deterred the girls and their effort and commitment was outstanding.

This was our first attempt at some regular rugby for our female students, and it won’t be the last. The enthusiasm of the girls and their coaches is to be admired and we will be working with other schools to try and ensure we can make girls rugby a permanent sport into the future.

Our boys' rugby fixtures begin on Saturday of Term 2, Week 1. Any boy who wishes to play in winning teams this year would be wise to spend some time during the holidays on their individual fitness. Our coaches will be looking for repeat efforts from players this year. Fitness is the key, 'rip in' everyone.

Equestrian News

Mrs Bardi Mannix, Equestrian MIC

This year will see another large group of students representing Kinross Wolaroi School at the North West Equestrian Expo in Coonabarabran held in June.

Students compete in a variety of disciplines from dressage, showjumping, sporting, stockman classes, hacking, team penning and more, with the team highlight being the polocrosse. With our junior riders – Erica, Zoe and Ryan just finished riding successfully at the Nationals representing NSW. We are looking good to hold onto the trophy that we won last year.

Any student that is keen to find out more or be on the team needs to register their interest with Mrs K Gleeson at kgleeson@kws.nsw.edu.au.

All information for students will be distributed via the Hub. Any further enquiries can be made to Mrs Mannix.

Cricket

Grand Final vs Centrals

KWS First XI won the toss and opted to bat first despite the promising bowling conditions. Opener Walter Prowse (10) and Number three Charlie Tink (18) weathered the early storm. James Glasson (38) started cautiously against the quality pace bowlers before ramping up against the next bowlers, rotating the strike well while punishing the bad ball. He was aided by Luke Hunter (32 from 35) who showed his intent early striking the first 4 of the innings from his first ball. At 6/124 with only a handful of overs remaining KWS were in danger of finishing with a below par total but some excellent death batting from Dudley Shepherd (17* from 23) and Harry Priest (10* from 9) took KWS to 6/144 from their 45 overs.

Defending in a grand final was going to require an excellent effort from the bowlers and the fielders. KWS were up to the challenge though, firstly thanks to Dudley Shepherd running from first slip to the leg side and then throwing directly over the bowlers end stumps to capitalize on the mix up caused by his brilliant movement, with Arnie Tancred (0/16 from 8) cleanly taking the throw and breaking the stumps to secure the run out. Walter Prowse (1/30 from 6) and Tancred’s terrific opening spell received further reward with Prowse taking a wicket thanks to Luke Hunter running and diving right to complete the catch at mid-off. KWS claimed a second run-out, with Hunter striking again, this time with a run-out chasing a ball to the boundary before throwing over the bowlers end stumps, with Harry Priest (0/14 from 4) taking the throw and then breaking the stumps as the batter fell just short returning from a second run. Henry Forsyth claimed a wicket to have Centrals at 4/64, caught by Luke Hunter. Forsyth then struck again soon after this time caught by Dave Hunter. Only one over later Forsyth took his third, caught behind by ‘keeper James Glasson. Jono Rasmussen (3/19 from 8.2) picked up a wicket thanks to a ‘speccy’ from Charlie Tink diving forward with his left hand at short mid-wicket. At the other end Dudley Shepherd added a wicket to his tally with Dave Hunter picking up a second catch. This left centrals at 8/82. Rasmussen picked up a second wicket, this time with a sharp caught and bowled chance to have Centrals 9 down with 41 runs still required. Centrals last pair added a further 13 runs across 6 overs to keep KWS’ nerves high before Rasmussen broke the final partnership with Glasson holding onto a tough catch behind the stumps.

KWS had won the grand final by 27 Runs.

From the Chaplain

Rev. Dr Rosalie Clarke

A blessed Easter