The wet and windy autumn weather this past week was a great reminder of the resilience and dedication of our athletes, who were undeterred as they competed for City and Island titles.
Cross Country
In damp and muddy conditions, the cross country team took part in four Island championship races at Beaver Lake.
The Junior Girls squad of Avery Geddes, Nella Meinecke, Maria Gilardi Gutierrez and Beatrice Sharpe all ran well, with a 4th-place finish just enough to earn a spot in the November 6 BC competition at Jericho Beach in Vancouver.
The Junior Boys just missed out on team qualification. However, Grade 9 standout Owen Sandquist-Sherman produced a scintillating 4th-place individual performance to ensure his spot at the provincials.
Likewise, with Kate LeRoy the first SMUS runner home, the Senior Girls also just failed to reach the BCs. Yet, the Senior Boys, led as always by perennial race winner Tion McLeish, did qualify. McLeish’s 18:41 ensured he blitzed the field, with Calum Webber-Smith, Bryson Henry and Oscar Lau providing the necessary support for a 4th-place team finish.
All the Island results can be viewed online.
Field Hockey
A busy and successful week concluded with the Senior Girls Field Hockey team capturing the Island AA title. After a straightforward 5-0 win against Francis Kelsey in the tournament opener, the SMUS girls played very solidly to secure a 2-1 result versus Brentwood College School. Eva Cuddihy notched both goals in a very competitive close match, with the winner coming just two minutes from full time.
The following morning, in the semi-final, another brace from Cuddihy and singles from Fay Hoefer and Annabel Howard sparked a 4-0 victory over Shawnigan Lake School. Then, in the final versus City rival Mount Douglas, goalkeeper Talia Pike recorded another shutout, while Cuddihy finished off a superb weekend with the game winner. (Check out the slideshow at the bottom of this post for more photos.)
SMUS now prepares for what promises to be a taut BC AA Championship, set to be hosted by SMUS and held at UVic November 3-5.
The Girls Development team, improving with every outing, battled bravely in league action against Claremont and then gave a good account of itself in a tournament held at Shawnigan Lake. The players now look forward to a season-ending Island Jamboree.
Rowing
SMUS rowers attended their first regatta in two years, with multiple crews participating in a restructured league format at the October Sprints Regatta.
On Day 1 at Elk Lake, seven Novice 4X boats progressed up the event ladder by either winning or placing second in each of their races. Both Men’s (Ryan So, Diego D’Lorm, Owen Vincent, Malik Salamatian) and Women’s Senior 4X (Kate LeRoy, Jessica Heaton, Sophie Vitrouk, Lily Langtry) topped their respective speed categories. Others who performed strongly included Kerry Yao and Markus Muller. In addition, on Day 2 the Novice 8+s easily won their heats before strong winds necessitated the cancellation of finals.
Overall results will now be used for seeding at the November 6-7 City Championship Regatta. SMUS is well-placed for a memorable competition!
Rugby
While the Grade 9 Boys enjoyed an off week in preparation for ISA fixtures versus Brentwood, Collingwood and St. George's, three Senior Boys team members travelled to the Fraser Valley to take part in a Rugby Canada West U18 ID camp. In what was a gruelling three days of action, Matthew Bennett, Dave Duru and David Escalante all acquitted themselves well.
Soccer
Senior Boys Soccer continued its late-season turnaround, recording an impressive 4-2 victory over second place Royal Bay. Takaaki Ohara, through some outstanding playmaking, Sam Shariaty and Cole Pontefract helped produce the necessary goals, while Ethan Woods made numerous important saves.
While the Oak Bay game two days later proved a bridge too far, LeRoy Wang turned in an excellent all-round performance.
The team concludes regular season play against Glenlyon Norfolk School this week before readying for both City and Island tournament play.
At the Junior Boys level, two second-half goals by Noah Haage and a powerful strike from Kian Colgate sparked SMUS to an exciting 3-2 victory over league-leading Claremont. With the win, the Blue Jags secured the league crown along with a bye to the City semifinals versus Royal Bay. Also on the horizon is the full Island event, to be held November 1-2 at Brentwood.
Volleyball
Following the completion of the Vic Lindal Cup, the Senior Girls finished 4th out of 19 schools in the City. As has been the case all season, Makena Anderson’s powerful hitting led the attack, while Delaney Arkell displayed some impressive back-row defence. A narrow loss to powerful Mount Douglas suggests that the team has a very real opportunity at the Island AA tournament.
Then, in an extremely tight ISA competition, two very narrow defeats condemned SMUS to an eventual 5th-place overall finish. The opening defeat to Crofton House was a real missed opportunity, as the team failed to cash in on a strong start. Alienor de Nanteuil, Anna Fowler, Ava Gillespie and Sophie Olcen all played strongly.
This week sees the team take part in the City AA playoffs as well as the Belmont Invitational.
The Junior Girls, led by Yanyu Zhang, Sammi Robinson and Lucia Schmidt del Rio, captured third place in the Mount Douglas Bumpin’ Pumpkin event. The bronze medal match against Reynolds went to three sets before SMUS confirmed a 15-12 win.
The Senior Boys, though in action all week, had somewhat of a lull in their schedule, with many of the reserve players getting extended minutes in advance of playoffs. SMUS split a pair of games with Reynolds before sweeping Royal Bay. At the Oak Bay tournament, a round robin event set up to replicate the best-of-five matches that feature at provincial level, Joshua Muwonge, Ryan Killoran and Ryan Cheng all showed their skills, while Nathan Chiao cemented his status as the city’s best libero with a superb all-round display.
Vivat!
