PSA Sport

ATHLETICS

ATHLETICS

After a debrief between the athletics coaches at the end of the 2017 season with this year’s senior athletes, the recurring feeling was that we needed to try something different to increase the profile of athletics within the College and to attract some of the capable, but less inclined, athletes to join the squad this year.

To this end, three new events were introduced into the athletics calendar and the College Age Championships was brought back into the program in a modified format.

• The Trinity Gift, a handicapped sprint event mirroring the Stalwell Gift, was held in front of around 500 spectators on Mann Oval and, using a staggered start, it featured the top two sprinters from each year level. A photo finish separated the top four placegetters, with

Year 8 athlete Kerry Barney (8.4) winning the inaugural event.

• The Chapel Bell Run in Week 2 gave the middle-distance boys their opportunity to show their ability with an 800 metre run, again using a handicap system, where Xavier Dawson (9.1) claimed the event.

• Week 3 of the season was another middle-distance event over 800 metres, where Old Boy

Matt Smith (‘13), who is currently in the top duathletes in the world, tried to chase down the middle-distance runners. He gave an 80 metre head start to the younger boys – Matt caught the entire field except for Year 7 runner, Caden

Barnett (7.3), who is an outstanding prospect in his own right.

These events gave great exposure and generated a lot of interest among the boys, with numbers at training exceeding over 100 athletes several times. The perennial problem of clashes between the athletics season, community sport finals and talent ID squads again proved difficult to manage and had an impact on the boys who found training loads to be too high for optimal results without careful management.

COLLEGE AGE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The College Age Champions were determined by using results from an intra-school meet and the tri-meet carnival held with Aquinas College and Hale School. Starting with Under 13 and going through to the Open Age group, the Age Champions were Dan Lutula Shungu (7.7), Kerry Barney (8.4), Jeffrey Farrell (9.4), Jojo Parise (10.7), Victor Le Tessier (11.7) and Thomas Throssell (12.4).

PSA INTERS

Mr Stephen Leahy

improvement of 162 points on 2017, which was a great effort by the boys and a reward for the hard work put in over the season.

UNDER 13

The boys performed admirably to convincingly win this age group by 71 points ahead of Scotch. Leading performers included Harrison Rogers (7.2), who scored 65 points and Caden Barnett (7.3), who scored 60 points and broke two PSA records in the 1500 metre and 800 metre events. The boys finished in the top three performing schools in every event.

UNDER 14

The Under 14s also won their age group – led by a great performance from Kerry Barney (8.4), who scored 81 individual points and set a new PSA record in triple jump. The 4 × 100 metre relay with Peter Karageorgiou (8.2), Jamaan Peters (8.1), Kerry Barney and Dahmen Weston (8.5) also set a new record. The sprinters, triple jumpers and high jumpers all performed strongly.

UNDER 15

The Under 15s finished third in their age group and were led by strong performances by Rory Charles (9.2) and Jeffrey Farrell (9.4), who scored 52 and 51 points respectively. The boys did well in the sprint and distance events with work needed on some of the field events for 2019.

UNDER 16

Led by Jojo Parise (10.7), who scored 45.5 points, the cohort finished fourth overall. Strengths included the shot putters and discus throwers, but a lack of depth in this age group put an unmanageable workload on some of the boys.

UNDER 17

The Under 17s finished third in their cohort and were led by Victor Le Tessier (11.7) (51 points) and Alexander Rossi (11.7) (48 points). The field and distance event athletes performed strongly, but there were six events where Trinity finished in the bottom two schools, which will need to be improved on in 2019.

OPEN AGE GROUP

The Open Age Group finished third in their cohort and was led by a dominant performance from Team Captain Thomas Throssell (12.4), who scored 114 points – the highest tally by an individual athlete on the day and the third year in a row that he scored 114 points. There was some excellent leadership from the boys in this year group – thank you and farewell to the boys who have represented their school so well over the past six years.

Congratulations to all the boys who were selected or tried out for the team this year. The amount of competition for positions on the team improved each athlete’s performance and benefitted the team enormously.

Thank you to all the staff, coaches and parents who all contributed to our improved performance this year and I look forward to the 2019 season.

Mr Stephen Leahy (’78)

Head of Athletics

ATHLETICS

BACK ROW: Timothy Ludovico, Alexander Baroni, Semisi Amato, Lachlan Moroney, Ethan Bradley, Harry Zimmermann, Brendan Bin Omar, Joseph Dawson, Liam Martin, Steele Cahill, Asher Fatin, Lachlan Bozich, John Lagan, Amato Amato, Andre’ Gorski, Hayden Boffey, Lual Lual SIXTH ROW: Cooper Fare, Alexander Rossi, Rory Charles, Xavier Dawson, Finn Moloney, Jakob Strohmeier, Gianluca Cottino, Fynnigan Langer, Max Mistilis, Ethan Regan, Benjamin Allen, Luca Rossi, James Watson, Ethan Throssell, Cristian Tot, Gavin Ryan, Alexander Sumich, Sean Harrison FIFTH ROW: Daniel Matuszkiewicz, Ashton Fewster, Liam Gearon, Tex Gorski, Myles Brown, Jaycob Kell, Victor Le Tessier, Simon Homsany, Lachlan Sibosado, Finn Gismondi, Tim Kelly, Max Ryan, Jack Georgiades, Ethan Hardy, Coen Agate, Jeffrey Farrell, Lewis Nannup, Jake Pizzuto, Dahmen Weston FOURTH ROW: Dan Lutula Shungu, Michael Madara, Adam De Masi, Hamish Lambert, Bonheur Cubahiro, Tom Murray, Thomas Tranter, William Hall, Lachlan Boylen, Xavier Walsh, Lachlan Spencer, Alexander Homsany, Matteo Primerano, Francis Moschilla, Aryan Pulappadi, Luca Gosatti, Jett O’Rourke, Max Van Noord, Eric Bonney, Kerry Barney THIRD ROW: Talan Rankin, Luca Iovene, Max Hewitt, Luke McChord, Joshua Strohmeier, James Pampacos, Jamaan Peters, MacKenzie Spiers, Ethan Lam, Joel Carcich, Kristian Little, Alastair Stewart, Adam Pearce, Alistair Carlson, Alexander Moffatt, Cameron Pell, Carlos Tan, Deacan Seve, Declan Ryan, Peter Karageorgiou, Reyne Schneider SECOND ROW: James McCague, Kaleb Rodriguez, Caden Barnett, Mr Nicholas Sumich, Mr Roland Nelson, Miss Brittany Edgar, Mr Travis Nederpelt, Mr Steve Leahy, Michael Le, Thomas Throssell (Captain), Nicholas Deleonardis, Mr Damien Hansen, Mrs Brigitte Savy-Walsh, Mr Nick Neates, Mrs Sally John, Mr Phil Jurjevich, Christian Ludovico, Myles Mari, Harrison Rogers FRONT ROW: Isaac Parker, Harry Hansen-Knarhoi, Christian Silva, Aodhan Seale, Maxwell York, Harry Costa ABSENT: Riley Murphy