Senior Girls Rugby
The SMUS Senior Girls Rugby 7s squad split two exhibition matches at Royal Bay on Friday, deploying a full roster of 19 girls with equal playing time.
The Blue Jags lost their first game by one try – a 22-17 final score – to a competitive Oak Bay side. SMUS then bounced back to win its second game of the day, a 31-5 decision over host Royal Bay.
“The majority of the girls just came off our 15s tour in France and Italy and had to adjust to a fast-paced 7s game,” said Coach Ian Farish. “They played well and learned some important lessons in this first outing.”
Senior Boys Rugby
Despite still experiencing some jet lag from the France and Italy spring break tour, the Senior Boys Rugby 15s nevertheless managed to beat host Brentwood College 22-12 in league action last Thursday.
“Our guys dug deep and got a positive result,” said Coach Wonjin Kim.
SMUS got two tries in the victory from Rohan Lee and one from Markus Djurickovic. Sam Bruninx rounded out the Blue Jags’ scoring, kicking two conversions and a penalty. SMUS standouts on the day were Finley Rolfe and Braxton Lechner in the forwards and Zaki Pelyhe and Sebastien Bixby in the backs.
Next up, the Blue Jags have a league game against Cowichan at home on Tuesday, beginning at 4:15 pm. The team will travel to North Vancouver on Saturday to play Rockridge in a cross-over game.
Junior Boys Rugby
The SMUS Junior Boys Rugby 15s also travelled to Brentwood for a match last Thursday, emerging with a convincing 66-5 victory.
Declan Longridge led the Junior Jags with an impressive four tries in the win while Tristan Mo added a pair. Single tries went to Santiago Flores La Salvia, Pablo Ostos Arena, Quinn McMeekin and Rodrigo De Leon Junco.
Senior Girls Soccer
The SMUS Senior Girls Soccer team was also victorious last week, beating Claremont 7-2 in a Lower Island league match on Thursday at Lochside Park.
Kate Fraser scored three times to lead the Blue Jags to the victory while Maddie Albert added a pair of goals. Singles came from Wynn Brown and Sophia Eiley.
Junior Girls Soccer
The SMUS Junior Girls Soccer team is sporting a 1-1 Lower Island league record after dropping a 2-1 decision to visiting Stelly’s on Thursday.
“After scoring early in the game, the win was looking promising,” said SMUS Coach Samantha Butler. “However, Stelly’s scored on a free kick and a penalty shot [to win the contest].
“There were some amazing saves by [SMUS keeper] Caitlyn Chen, and exceptional hustle by our midfield. All athletes contributed to both games and the positive atmosphere on the team – led by captain Manon Denux – points towards good things to come!”
In its first league game before spring break, the Blue Jags beat Oak Bay 3-0 under extremely windy conditions.
Tennis
The SMUS Tennis team earned a pair of wins last week, beating Claremont 7-4 and Mount Douglas 6-4.
On Wednesday against Claremont, the Blue Jags got big wins from the doubles teams of Wataru Yamano and Harry Cai, who beat their Claremont opponents 6-2, and from Bianca Toaxen and Amya Naimi, who won their match 6-0.
On Friday against Mount Douglas, the SMUS squad got doubles victories from
Jason Fan and Jack McQueen, who beat their opponents 6-3, and from Madeline Wilson and Katharina Heinemann, who won by 6-1 and 6-2 scores.
The SMUS team will face Oak Bay in an exhibition match this coming Wednesday.
Track and Field
With only one practice before spring break, the SMUS Track and Field team jumped right into its season last Wednesday as 35 Blue Jag athletes participated in the first of six meets scheduled for the University of Victoria.
Leupold Wang of SMUS won the Senior Boys long jump while teammate Finlay Hlannon was second in the 300-metre hurdles. SMUS runner Owen Sandquist-Sherman finished second in the boys’ 3000-metres and teammate Luc Denux was fourth in the same race.
SMUS runners Maya Achuthan, Annabel Howard and Abby McLeish-Shaw finished sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively, in the Senior Girls 200-metre race.
The SMUS Track and Field team will be in action again this Wednesday at UVic.
Field Hockey
Three SMUS Girls Field Hockey team members – Wynn Brown, Caitlyn Mullen and Mackenna Brown – recently competed for Canadian national team squads in international play.
Wynn and Mackenna were members of the U18 women’s national team that travelled to Edinburgh, facing off against Scotland's U19 Aspire team in a two-game series. In the first game, the Canadian team fell 2-0 to the strong Scottish side, a promising result for Canada’s first-ever game together. The second game of the series was competitive, but Canada struggled to find the back of the net. Nevertheless, the Canadian side pulled out a 3-1 win, with Wynn Brown dramatically clearing the ball off Canada's goal line to maintain the two-goal gap.
Next, the Canadian team travelled to Wales for a three-game series against that country’s U18 national team. Canada drew the first game 2-2 before beating Wales 3-2 in its second game. Canada fell 2-1 in the final game after 70 minutes of exciting end-to-end play, with Mackenna Brown scoring Canada’s lone goal.
Meanwhile, the U17 Canadian national team travelled to The Netherlands, where it played two exhibition games, falling short both times. Canada then competed in the HDM Easter Tournament in The Hague, where the team won three, lost three, and drew one match, placing sixth out of 15 squads in the tournament. Caitlyn Mullen of SMUS started nearly every game and was a part of the Canadian squad’s four-person leadership group. Mullen was strong in the mid-field line and was the number one stick-stopper throughout the tournament.
