Cross Country
The road to provincials began this week, with 29 SMUS cross country athletes travelling to Nanaimo for the Island qualifying meet.
At the Junior Girls level, the team, paced by Paulina Moreno, finished a creditable sixth place overall. The Senior Boys, in a star studded race, ran well and, led by Flavius Meinecke (30th overall), also only just missed out on reaching the BCs.
The Senior Girls event was equally demanding, with Izzy Champion keeping in touch with the lead pack to secure 9th place. Strong support from Kristina Matthews, Lauren Randall-Guy, Nadine Reis and Angel Lan resulted in a 5th place team finish and the final Island berth to provincials.
Finally, Tion McLeish continued his stellar Junior Boys season, shattering the course record en route to a comprehensive victory. Avery Myers and Calum Webber-Smith also performed wonderfully well, with SMUS reaching the BCs by virtue of its 4th place standing.
Best of luck to all runners at the BC provincial competition scheduled for November 2 in Abbotsford.
Field Hockey
In field hockey, the Senior Girls successfully negotiated their own Island tournament, with 3-0 and 3-1 wins versus Lambrick Park and Frances Kelsey on opening day propelling the team to the semi-final. In this game, two strikes from Fay Hoefer and the first marker of the season by Stephanie Ganz helped see off Brentwood 3-1. While the championship match, against BC AA #2 ranked Shawnigan, proved a bridge too far, Eva Cuddihy did register an excellent goal.
The squad now faces a demanding 10 final days, with an October 28 tilt against Oak Bay for the May Tully Shield first on the docket. This will be followed by the BC AA tournament, to be held at UVic November 6-8.
Soccer
Senior Boys soccer concluded league play away to Oak Bay, with Callum Colgate notching the only goal of the first half. Unfortunately, a Bays resurgence combined with some Blue Jags' defensive errors saw the game end up 4-1. Nonetheless, SMUS can look forward to a Halloween Colonist Cup quarterfinal at Claremont before turning its full attention to the Island AA tournament November 4-5 at Hampton Park.
Squash
Eight SMUS squash players took part in the BC Junior Open. In a series of superb performances, Jay Herring fought back from two different match points to capture the U19 Boys title. In addition, at U19 Girls level, Alex Brown won two huge Sunday matches to place third overall. Oliver Kerr and Christian Yuen just missed out on the podium in their respective age groups, while Alden Weymar, Anderson Brown, Lucas Quon and Sofia Quon each came fifth.
Rowing
SMUS rowing competed in its second regatta, with Elk Lake as the venue. A novel format, allowing mixed crews of any composition to race against those of similar speed was introduced to good effect.
Liam Hodgins and Markus Muller both performed extremely well in the Open Singles event on a wind swept Saturday, with the Open 8 and Novice Quad also rowing efficiently.
In better conditions 24 hours later, a Boys quad placed 6th, with three different Girls quads finishing 2nd, 3rd and 7th. In their respective categories, both the Boys Novice 8 and the Girls 8 placed first.
Overall, the event was excellent preparation for the November 9-10 City championships.
Volleyball
Finally, in volleyball, the Senior Boys played extremely well against three of the top teams in the province. Though falling to PCS (BC AA #1), Claremont (BC AAA #2) and Oak Bay (BC AAA #5), the team, led by setter Kyle Stenberg, was highly competitive in all six sets. This augurs well for the upcoming Bays tournament and City playoffs.
The Senior Girls made their final preparations for local 3A playoffs versus Stelly's, Vic High and Esquimalt with a solid effort at the ISAs. Wins versus Aberdeen Hall, Mulgrave and Collingwood featured strong serving by Katie Rothwell, strong hitting from Claudia Murr and impressive serve receive by libero Ines Wang.
On the Junior Girls Development front, Fernanda Osio, Sophia Hedler and Talia Pike all played well as SMUS won three of six games versus Vic High, Spectrum and Parkland.
Vivat!
