Sport 

There were numerous challenges to school sport again this year but at least school sport did go ahead. The first major sporting event was the school swimming carnival where Mercy dominated to win the Bill Clegg Memorial Trophy easily from McAuley, Lourdes and Loreto. Mercy also won the Ex-Students Participation Shield and the Relay Cup. There were three new records set at the carnival.

Twenty students were selected to go on to the Armidale Diocesan Secondary Swimming carnival with PASS students helping out as officials at the event. There were some outstanding individual performances with seven individual age champions and seven new school records set on the day. Twelve students were selected to be in the Armidale Diocesan team for the NSWCCC Swimming Championships in Sydney. St Mary’s also won the inter-school relay.

At NSWCCC Swimming Harrison Bennett medalled and was selected in the NSWCCC Swimming team. Most other swimmers swam personal best times in their events.

The St Mary’s College annual cross country was held on the last day of Term 1. Due to wet weather leading up to the event the usual track was deemed unsuitable resulting in a new course being run within Kitchener Park. The grandstands were filled with students cheering the runners on. It was a great atmosphere for the event. The overall winners of the event were Eamon Martin and Macey Carlyon. The John Hickey Trophy was won by Mercy from Loreto, Lourdes and McAuley.

The Armidale Diocesan Cross Country for secondary schools was held this year at UNE Armidale early in Term 2. St Mary’s College had twenty seven students competing in the event. The course was more challenging than previous years with a distinct hill climb on a mountain bike track. Three students were successful in winning their event and eighteen St Mary’s runners were successful in gaining selection in the Armidale Diocesan team to compete in the NSWCCC Cross Country.

The NSWCCC Cross Country can be a daunting experience with so many competitors in each event and the start in particular can be a challenge. Many of our students were out of contention after the first 800m of their event but still ran on determinedly to the finish. 

The Armidale Diocesan Tennis for secondary schools was held at UNE Armidale on the same day as the cross country. The competition was a team format with schools providing pairs to play three sets in each match - two singles matches plus a doubles match. In both the girls and boys finals St Mary’s played St Mary’s and the winners were St Mary’s with both teams qualifying for the NSWCCC Tennis Teams Championship at Bathurst.

At the NSWCCC Tennis Championships the girls lost their first round match but went on to win the consolation final. The boys won through to the semi-finals and were behind when the weather intervened. St Mary’s conceded the semi-final tying for third overall with the finals being postponed until a week later in Sydney.

The first athletics carnival in three years was held in Term 3 this year with students participating enthusiastically in a variety of events throughout the day. There were two records broken on the day, one record equalled and new records set in each year group for this year’s new event the vortex throw. The winning house on the day was McAuley just in front of Loreto, Mercy and Lourdes. McAuley also won the Novelty Games trophy as well as the Relay Cup.

Loreto won the St Joseph’s Parish Participation Shield while Lourdes won the March Past trophy for being the best organised house at the start of the carnival.

The Armidale Diocesan Secondary Athletics this year was held at the Tamworth Regional Athletic Centre in Term 3. With the synthetic surface the results were better than previous years. St Mary’s College students performed outstandingly well on the day with eight school records broken, many of them set thirty to forty years ago. Four students were named individual age champions on the day and fourteen students were selected in the Armidale Diocesan team for the NSWCCC Athletics Championships at Sydney Olympic Park. The quality of competition was very high with six school records being broken, six medals won plus an individual age champion named. Congratulations to Ruby Clayton on being named the 12 Girls NSWCCC Athletics Age Champion winning a total of four medals and setting three new school records. Ruby and Isabella Sawyer were named in the NSWCCC Athletics merit team. Isabella Sawyer also competed at the NSW All Schools Athletics Championships winning a silver medal in the high jump and being selected in the NSW team to compete at the Australian All Schools Athletics Championships in Adelaide in December.

During Term 4 the House lunchtime sports competition was held for the John Lennan Trophy. The emphasis of the competition was on participation by playing or helping to run the different sports but winning still had some importance. With one round to go any one of three houses could win the trophy but the success of the competition has been in the number of students and staff participating in the lunchtime sports.

2022 has been one of the most successful years in school sport for many years. There have been many new records set in both swimming and athletics and the number of students being selected in the Armidale Diocesan teams and performing competitively at NSWCCC events has increased. We’ve also done very well in team competitions with all our netball teams winning through to the regional finals of the Netball NSW Cup, rugby league teams playing again and the chess team continued to be very successful in their competitions. 

None of this would be possible, however, without the time and effort put in by the staff and students in preparing teams. This year’s House Captains have done an outstanding job in organising their Houses for all the different competitions and the support they have been given by their peers has been much appreciated. Thanks as well to the parents for supporting their children playing sport. Sport is such an important part of education and it is vital that all involved with school sport are given the opportunity to continue to be involved.