Sport
The Morrisonian | 07/08
Page 71
Athletics/Swimming/Cricket Girls’ Athletics (cont.)
Swimming
events Rachel won the 800m with Catherine Lovegrove in second. The hurdles race was also won by Rachel with Melanie Stephen finishing second. In the field events Rachel won the long jump with a jump of 4.69m and in second place with a jump 4.04m was Melanie Stephen. The shot putt was won by Emily Harrison, discus by Ailsa Laird and the javelin by Meggan Redden. Rachel Adamson won by a margin but the number of girls who contested the events, especially the field events, was pleasing.
The Morrison’s swim team has enjoyed some success this season, although individual opportunities for many of our swimmers were at times limited by pupil unavailability and illness. That said, we were able to field four swimmers at the Tayside Schools’ Swimming Championships at the Olympia Centre in Dundee in November. The standard of competition is always very high with the majority of entrants being Club level swimmers.
In the senior girls championship Vicky Henderson, who is also the girls’ athletic captain, won the championship easily. She took first place in the 100m, 200m, 300m, 800m and the shot putt and second in the discus. This gave her a total of 38 points. Her closest rival was Victoria Tripp who finished on 18 points. She did get the better of Vicki Henderson in the discus with a throw of 17.03m. Two events which did not involve either of these girls were the javelin and the long jump. In the javelin, Ailsa Guntley won with a throw of 15.34m with Claire Beattie in second with her throw of 13.34m. The long jump was extremely close between Kate Kennedy and Katherine Harris. In the end Kate won with a jump of 3.87m, only 2cm better than Katherine. This is when it is vital to take off right on the board. Overall sports’ day was a huge success. The rain stayed away, the girls competed in a friendly competitive manner and there were plenty of vocal spectators who added to the atmosphere of the day. D Nesbit
Jemma Murphy (12 & under - 50m backcrawl and 50m freestyle) and Sam Rowley (13/14 years – 100m breaststroke) competed well in their respective events although sadly failed to qualify for their finals. Both swimmers showed a lot of promise for the future and I look forward to seeing them compete again next year. Medal success did, however, fall on Morrison’s swimmers with Jamie Duncan winning bronze in the boys’ 15/16 years 100m breaststroke and Josh Murchie runner-up in the 13/14 years 100m breaststroke. In our regular swim match versus Glenalmond College we were fortunately able to field a strong team made up of pupils from S1 – S6. Both the U15 and O15 boys’ teams left it right to the last race to take victory in two closely fought freestyle relays. Fine performances over the course of the afternoon came from Nathan Thomson in the U15 50m backcrawl; Josh Murchie in the U15 50m breaststroke; Graeme Clow in the 25m butterfly and John Ramsay in the 50m freestyle. The girls’ competition was equally as hard fought with our U15 girls winning by only two points. Sami Murchie and Lauren Houston produced fine wins in the 50m freestyle and the 50m breaststroke
respectively. The O15 girls ably captained by Ellie Wagstaff were, however, unlucky to lose out to Glenalmond, particularly after success for Ailsa Laird in the 25m fly and Ellie in 25m breaststroke. My thanks go to all those swimmers who represented the school in this match. In our own school swimming championships, Ellie Wagstaff became senior girls champion while Ailsa Laird was victorious in the intermediate girls’ event. The senior and intermediate boys’ championships were won by John and Paul Ramsay respectively. E McCormack
1st XI Cricket
Last year I wrote: “We did not really see the best of what had been a promising team. Several return next year and we hope for better weather to give us the chance to fulfil the full fixture list.” Well this turned out to be a season of immense frustration – there looked to be a good mix of experience and youthful enthusiasm along with talent in both batting and bowling. However for a mixture of reasons this team was