Scotch College

Athletics Report 2002

Scotch performed reasonably well at the APS sports for sixth place, finishing only six points from fourth. Glandular fever restricted our highest ranked athlete, Andrew Krumins, to just a single appearance in the distance relay and we were hampered by injuries to a couple of our most promising youngsters. Nevertheless, there were many fine performances highlighted by five first places.

Sebastian Graham recorded marvellous victories in both the flat jumps where he led the Under 15 group. He leapt 5.54m in the long jump and covered an impressive 11.74m in the triple jump. His Year 8 colleague Luke Woodard was placed third in the hurdles.

William Don was another Division 1 finalist and ran fourth in the 200m. These boys together with other juniors in Will Emmett, Nick Smith, Tyson Yeo, James Merrideth, Andrew Hogan, Jonno Green and Ben Hirons give optimism for a strong future.

At the Under 16 level Alec Dick was our best performer, running an excellent second place in the hurdles. He also triple jumped and anchored both relays. He covered the 400m in 53.2 seconds. Teammate Jack Peddy made a fine improvement through the season and ran 54.3 seconds in his relay leg. Jack Davis and Ben Mielke made up that relay team and it finished in a creditable fourth place. Angus Tummel jumped 5.57m, also for fourth place.

Our strongest team was the Under 17 level where most of the group have been performing together for three years. Star shot putter James Baliakis did it again! He once more showed an ability to really produce on the day, and his throw of 14.64m secured first place and his hat trick of victories in this event at the APS sports. Jonno Pearce showed the benefit of top class coaching to lift his PB 13 centimetres on the day to high jump brilliantly to win with his clearance of 1.96m. Sprinter James Barton ran in four Division 1 finals. He ran third at 200m, fourth in the 100m, fourth in the shorter relay, and anchored his 4 x 400m relay team to a fine second place finish with a blistering 50.6 seconds last lap. His teammates in the relays were Mark Cathie and John Cade, and Stewart Morrison in the longer race. Cade had earlier surprised with a Division 1 qualification in the hurdles and justified the rating with an excellent third place. Morrison again worked hard to finish sixth in the 800m. Tearaway distance runner Andrew Mitchell just failed to lead all the way in the 1500m, finishing second in a PB of 4m11.9 sec.

Nick Miller's win in the 3000m was our only first placing in the Open age group. Captain Stephen Hope had recently battled injury but was again able to make the Division 1 final in the 100m and ran strongly for fifth place.

He and teammates Peter Commons,Tom Graham and David Heaton made fine baton changes and finished in a close fourth place in the 4 x 100m relay. Commons had a good day jumping with PBs in both events. His 13.43m triple jump gained second place and he jumped 6.25m for fourth in the long jump. Andrew Hocking threw well and his 13.47m shot put was just 4cm from second place but gained fourth. The 4 x 800m relay team faded to fifth place with Miller tired after the two longest events and Krumins well below his best form. Oscar McLennan ran quickly recording 2.04:8, but it was Tim Jelbart who produced the most impressive PB, running 2.02:6.

There are lots of good signs for the future with many Year 7 and 8 boys getting involved this season. A big thank you goes to all staff who worked with the squad and to coaches Gaffney and Shuravetsky whose efforts were so much appreciated.

Don Davenport
Teacher in Charge Athletics