SPORT NEWS

STATE ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

On Thursday 16 October, McKinnon students represented the school at the State Athletics Championships at Lakeside Stadium. It was an unforgettable day, with our athletes competing across a wide range of events and delivering outstanding performances.

State Athletics Results:

• Harry Robertson (Year 12): 1st in Long Jump (PB), 2nd in Triple Jump, and 3rd in High Jump (PB)

• Flynn Walker (Year 8): 1st in 800m (State Record), and 4th in 400m

• Lucinda Ledger (Year 12): 3rd in 800m (PB), and 7th in 1500m

• Zavier Madden (Year 9): 2nd in 800m, and competed in the 1500m

• 17 Years Girls Relay Team (Mica Regev, Ellie Zalcman, Mia Lacey, Kiara Malhotra) (Year 11): 4th place

• Jasmine Chilco-Burns (Year 10): 5th in Discus

• Mia Lacey (Year 11): 6th in High Jump

• Lior Lichtenstein (Year 8): 7th in Javelin

A massive shoutout to Flynn Walker for breaking the State Athletics U14 800m record, as well as Harry Robertson and Lucinda Ledger for setting new Personal Bests!

Congratulations to all our competitors for their dedication, hard work, and for representing McKinnon at the highest level.

Jemma Owen

Athletics Coordinator 

INTERMEDIATE BOYS TABLE TENNIS INTO STATE FINAL!

On Thursday 22 October, the Intermediate Boys Table Tennis team consisting of Oliver Leung (Year 10), Konstantinos Dimitrakopoulos (Year 10), Jayden Ma (Year 10), Vasilis Dimitrakopoulos (Year 9), Jeffery Jin (Year 10) and Daniel Chen (Year 10) represented McKinnon at the School Sport Victoria Table Tennis Southern Metro Regional final.

Despite being placed in the very unfavorable “group of death” which included past champions Melbourne High and Nossal High, our team put together a superb performance to first top the group, and subsequently, went on to become SMR Champion.

The day began with our team comfortably winning 6-0 against Clyde SC. And then, we faced top seed Melbourne High who, at that stage, had already collected full points against Nossal High. Therefore, this was effectively a final for us. Not deterred by our fancier opponent, and believing in our ability, we fought for every rubber, game and point. In the end, McKinnon boys prevailed in one of the closest matches we have seen in this competition for a long time: 3 rubbers each, 10 games each, 199 to 185 points! 

After overcoming the top seed, McKinnon boys confidently finished the job against Nossal High with a 4-2 scoreline to top the group and advanced to the SMR final against Kambrya College. The final against Kambrya College was a surprisingly one-sided affair, with McKinnon winning 4 rubbers to nil (dropping only one game). 

With this victory, the boys team became the SMR Table Tennis Champion and will represent the region in the State Final next month for the first time in decades. Well done to the team for this unprecedented achievement!

INTERMEDIATE GIRLS TABLE TENNIS SMR

Meanwhile, the Girls Table Tennis team: Laura Lu, Nikki Bharathy, Emily Yang and Odella Fernandes (Year 10) took on Clyde, MacRob and Nossal in the Girls section of the Southern Metro Region finals. 

After winning their match against Clyde 4-2, the team were unfortunately overpowered by MacRob in the 2nd round despite the heroic efforts from the team to put their opponent under enormous pressure throughout the six rubbers. In the final round against Nossal, the contest was very close. After the singles phase, the score was locked at 2-2 and the match would ultimately be decided by a countback after they drew in the two doubles as well. With a final score of 3-3, the match was decided by games won. Unfortunately, the tiebreak went against us by just 1 game, narrowly losing the contest. 

Despite not reaching the final, the team should be very proud of their effort in a very difficult pool. Great work everyone.

Dr Sandy Law

Team Manager & Coach

INTERMEDIATE GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Intermediate Girls Basketball had a hot day out at Cardinia stadium on Thursday 22 October! We knew we had some tough opposition to beat so we knew we had to bring out A game!

We knew we had a tough first match against Berwick, narrowly winning by 7 points! Then won another close match against Mentone Girls Secondary College by 3 points, meaning we had to play the final against Elizabeth Murdoch College! Unfortunately, we fell short by 1 point after a hard fought out game in the scorching hot conditions!

Well done to all the girls for attending the day and being such an incredible group to coach! Well done to Sabine Banks (Year 10), Amelia Behrendt (Year 9), Lulu Chibert (Year 10), Jasmine Chilco-Burns (Year 10), Lara Davis (Year 10), Eva Kentera (Year 9), Audrey Powell (Year 10) and Clementine Wilson (Year 10)! Thanks to Avyana Girotra (Year 10) and Chanya Mapitiya (Year 10) for helping score and coach on the day! 

Abbey Snell

Coach

INTERMEDIATE CRICKET 

Congratulations to the Intermediate Boys Cricket who put on a great performance at the SMR Semi Finals. They played a great game but ultimately fell short in a narrow loss. 

Congratulations to Leith Salwathura (Year 10)  on a terrific batting performance as captain of the team. 

Liam Adlington 

Coach

YEARS 7 BOYS & GIRLS TABLE TENNIS

On Wednesday 21 October the Years 7 Boys and Girls Table Tennis Teams competed in the regional finals. 

The Year 7 Boys competed in a series of games and successfully won a finals game against Frankston High School, winning by a game and 5 points difference overall for their singles and doubles games. 

They have qualified for the state tournament at the end of November. 

We wish them luck in the next stage of this final’s tournament.

Caitlin Hemphill

Coach

YEAR 7 FUTSAL SMR

On Wednesday 14 October, the McKinnon Year 7 and 8 Girls Futsal teams travelled all the way to Dromana to compete in the SMR finals. 

Year 7 got off to a strong start, defeating Mentone Girls 3-0. We continued to win throughout the day, beating Somerville 4-0 and McClelland 15-2. Our next match against Minaret was a close contest, but unfortunately, we went down 3-1. We finished the day on a high, defeating Dromana 15-0!

The final standings were extremely close, and first place was still within reach. Although Mentone Girls, who we had won against, defeated Minaret, the final rankings were determined by point percentage rather than point difference. As a result, Minaret finished in first place, McKinnon came second, and Mentone Girls finished third.

Thank you to Miri Karro who helped ref and coach. Your excitement and cheering helped us so much and thank you to Mrs Karro for coaching and helping us get here. We can't wait for next year!

Tiana Georgiou

Year 7 Student