As usual, April 24-30 produced another busy week of inter-school sport, with the league play drawing to a close as playoffs loom on the horizon.
Badminton
The Badminton team cruised to a pair of easy victories, topping Oak Bay 11-0 and then again 9-2 in the first round of City playoffs. Kudos to Bella Lu and Jaden Berger-North for their outstanding performances in singles and mixed doubles.
Rowing
Rowing travelled to Mill Bay to compete in the 51st Brentwood International Regatta. The event, back to pre-pandemic levels in terms of participation, saw some 1,200 oarsmen and women, from all over Vancouver Island and as far away as Oregon, take part in 160 events. Unfortunately, as too often seems to be the case, strong winds impacted the race program, and necessitated an early finish to proceedings.
The 34 SMUS athletes in attendance put in a solid performance with the U17 Women 4X+ finishing third overall.
Next up is the Shawnigan Lake Regatta on May 12-14, before the Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association regatta in St. Catharines, Ont., in early June.
Rugby
All the rugby squads were similarly in action. The Girls teams enjoyed an unbeaten week, with two strong performances in comfortable victories versus Belmont and Royal Bay. Skye Farish and Chioma Duru both ran strongly on the way to registering several tries.
SMUS then took on touring West Island College, winning a spirited affair versus the Calgary visitors. Captain Moe Ohara and Josefina Ingimundson were prominent, with a notable effort also from newcomer Luise Doelling. The entire 31-player Blue Jags squad then entertained a sizable Alumni Weekend throng with an exciting, competitive trial game.
Meanwhile, the Junior Boys struggled to get untracked in falling to Shawnigan in a key Island league fixture, but performed much better versus crosstown rivals Oak Bay in an exhibition match. Braxton Lechner, Ewan Webber-Smith, Des Grant and Marcus Lam were much in evidence in a competitive contest. The two sides meet again May 9 in league play.
The Senior Boys Rugby team scrambled a 26-24 victory away to Claremont in a physical encounter. Rohan Lee, Matt Bennett, Sebastian Salomon Wong and Alex Liu crossed the whitewash, with Bennett adding three conversions.
However, two days later, SMUS then fell to a fast, well-drilled, and powerful Collingwood side in the Alumni Weekend showcase. The Cavaliers, in the eyes of many the best school team in BC, gave a masterclass in ball retention and support play, notching five tries without reply.
Next up for SMUS are important provincial crossover matches on May 4 versus Robert Bateman Secondary from the Fraser Valley.
Congratulations are in order for Senior Boys co-captains Bennett and Carter Haddow. Both have been named to the Canada U18 team which travels to Europe in July. In addition Bennett will join the national U18 7s squad for the Young Commonwealth Games, set for Trinidad and Tobago in August.
Soccer
The Senior Girls Soccer squad, edging slowly back to full health, won 2-1 at Reynolds in a top of the table clash. Talia Pike and Makena Anderson each scored to secure a vital 2-1 victory. The pair then again figured prominently in a 3-0 victory over Claremont. Strong defence, anchored by Sophie Olcen and goalkeeper Eva Cuddihy, has been equally important, with the Blue Jags now facing a final league tilt against Edward Milne Community School before a Ryan Cup quarterfinal on May 4.
At the Junior Girls level, SMUS battled hard against powerful Spectrum, eventually going down 3-0. However, the group rebounded nicely to drop Belmont 7-1 thanks to a balanced attack. Joss Olcen netted a pair of long-range strikes.
Tennis
After numerous weather delays, the Tennis team finally played a full league match, with mainstays Felina Yang and Ethan Curtis leading the way versus Glenlyon Norfolk School. Doubles specialists Kotobuki Okada and Maddy Wilson also showed off their net prowess in the 7-4 SMUS victory. The full Island playoffs await on May 8-9.
Track and Field
Finally, the Track and Field team wrapped up league meet No. 4 at Centennial Stadium, with strong performances, in a variety of events, from Caitlyn Chen, Amelie Fleck, Finlay Hlannon, Owen Sandquist-Sherman, Tommy Hong, Abby McLeish-Shaw, Annabel Howard, Henry Morton and Eu-Rway Chew.
Still, of special note was a superb, gold medal 1.96-metre Senior Boys high jump performance by Leupold Wang. This impressive leap set a new age-grade track record.
Vivat!
