Cross Country
In cross country, in a final league race, at Beaver Lake, prior to the October 23 Island meet in Nanaimo, both the Junior Girls and Senior Boys teams finished second. Tion McLeish continued his championship form, with Anouk Schoch, Flavius Meinecke and Kristina Matthews also running strongly.
Meanwhile, the Middle School Cross Country team wrapped up with a meet at Juan de Fuca. In wet and windy conditions, Charlie A., Kiyomi N., Caitlyn M., Janet A. and Olivia V. all recorded top 10 finishes. In addition, Avery G. and Sierra J. each finished third in their respective races.
Field Hockey
The Senior Girls Field Hockey team, thanks to a Suzie Stone marker, sealed the South Island AA No. 1 spot with a 1-0 victory over Glenlyon Norfolk School. The team then sharpened up for this coming weekend's important Island AA tournament with a solid performance in the ISAs. Though going down 2-1 to Crofton House and 2-0 to Shawnigan Lake School, the Blue Jags generated numerous scoring chances in both matches, which hopefully augurs well in the weeks ahead. Maya Djurickovic, Ella Delichte, Allegra Nelson, Julia McDermott and goalkeeper Jessie Cheng, among others, will again need to perform strongly as SMUS looks to qualify for provincials.
Soccer
It was a banner week for the Senior Boys Soccer squad. First, goals from Callum Colgate and Andres Vega-Perez, in addition to a gritty defensive effort, saw SMUS secure an impressive 2-1 victory over league-leading, BC AAA No. 4-ranked Reynolds. Then, two days later, versus a similarly unbeaten Claremont side, the Blue Jags drew 1-1 thanks to a Paul Mueller strike.
These two results have thrown a highly competitive City league wide open.
The Junior Boys Soccer team completed their regular season in good form, defeating Spectrum 3-0. Stuart Dobyns recorded the shutout, with captain Louis Chang also in fine form. Gavin Cougle (2) and Finn Klenz recorded goals.
Volleyball
The Senior Boys Volleyball team recorded a league victory versus Vic High before dropping two close games to Island AA No. 1 Pacific Christian School. Then, at the Highland Tournament, behind the solid play of Karter Fry, Peter King, Matias Totz, Mark Finamore and Kyle Stenberg, SMUS, on reaching the playoff rounds, beat Carihi, Timberline and Highland to reach the final versus Reynolds. The Highland match was a thriller, with SMUS rallying from an opening 25-23 loss to triumph 27-25 and 15-8. Even if the championship match then proved a bridge too far, the weekend was a definite boost in advance of local and Island playoffs.
The Senior Girls Volleyball team continued on their trek towards local playoffs, with a key fixture looming against Esquimalt. As part of preparations for this and other post-season games, the team travelled to Calgary for the 48th annual Western Canadian Independent Schools Volleyball Championships. In this high-calibre event, SMUS dropped pool games to the eventual finalists Rundle College and York House. A solid win against Stratford Hall highlighted Day 2, with Jasper Delichte, Claudia Murr, Ines Wang and Josie Hallatt playing well.
At the ISAs, the Junior Girls A team won two of three pool games to reach the final eight. Unfortunately, following a quarterfinal success, the team couldn't get past Crofton House in the semifinals. However, in the bronze medal match, the team did come back to reverse a pool defeat to West Point Grey Academy en route to a third-place overall finish. Again, Lauren Rust, Makena Anderson and Skye Farish led the way.
After a successful run that propelled the Junior Girls Development squad to second place in league action, SMUS sandwiched a victory over Esquimalt with losses to Belmont and then Lambrick Park. Jenna Melo, Meheq Bawa and Claire Boonsermmit continued their fine seasons.
