NSW Schools Challenge: Meriden School, Pymble Ladies and Trinity Grammar take the honours

10 October 2024

NSW Schools Challenge: Meriden School, Pymble Ladies and Trinity Grammar take the honours

The NSW Schools Challenge was held in a different format for 2024, being integrated into the five-day NSW All Schools Championships held at Homebush on 28 September to October 2. Teams were vying to compete at the National Schools Challenge to be held in Brisbane on December 9.

In the three boys divisions Junior/Intermediate/Senior, Trinity Grammar defended their titles, with their closest battle in the Junior boys, finishing ahead of Knox Grammar 71 to 62 points. Knox Grammar placed top-3 in all age divisions and will be well represented in the National final. Barker College qualified two teams and Endeavor Sports one team.

Meriden School were the dominate team in the girls, winning the Intermediate and Senior divisions, while Pymble Ladies College claimed the Junior girls. Both schools will be represented in all three divisions at the Nationals, along with Endeavour Sports High (Intermediate and Senior) and Ascham (Junior).

JUNIOR GIRLS

It was a close battle for places second to sixth. Four of the six wins were athletes from schools outside the top-3- Avie Russell in the 100m & 200m (Stella Maris), Anais Biasi 800m (Barker) and Lowami Carati shot (Endeavour).

Amalia Bond scored well for Pymble winning the long jump, with an extraordinary leap of 5.75m, and placing second in the 100m. Key for second placed Ascham was five top-5 places, led by Lucia Zagora who won the javelin.

1 Pymble Ladies' College 136

2 Ascham School 119

3 Meriden School 116

JUNIOR BOYS

Trinity claimed a close battle ahead of Knox and Endeavour on the back of two wins from Nathan Jones (800m), Athan Fudeh (javelin) and a strong all-round performance. Barker’s James Atkins was top-2 in three events (100m, 200m and long jump), but could only score in two events. Jake Ossman stared for Endeavour with third place in the 100m and 200m.

1 Trinity Grammar 71

2 Knox Grammar 62

3 Endeavour Sports 54

INTERMEDIATE GIRLS

Meriden School were strong across all events, resulting in a dominant 57-point win. They won four events via Adriana Borg (long jump), Caitlin Yeoh (javelin), Yolanda Dolenac (high jump) and Julie Meaker (1500m). For Pymble, Matilda Harrison was peerless winning the 100m and 200m. Endeavour were will served by Sienna Latanis winning the shot and hurdler Neve Jenkins fourth in the 100m and second in the 200m.

1 Meriden School 158

2 Pymble Ladies' College 101

3 Endeavour Sports H 96

INTERMEDIATE BOYS

Trinity dominated the technical events, claiming the high jump (Kyle Jiang), javelin (William Jenkins) and long jump (Mason McGroder), while in the close battle for second both Barker and Knox claimed two wins – Barker with Lachlan Byrnes (100m & 200m) and Knox through Xavier Perry (400m) and Oliver Sanbrook (800m).

1 Trinity Grammar School 75

2 Barker College 52

3 Knox Grammar School 50

SENIOR GIRLS

Audrey Sutton, who scoring in five events, led Meriden to a comfortable win.  Pymble won four events, including the sprints by Phoebe Berglund (100m) and Samara Bond (200m, 400m) and heptathlete Sarah Lovell (javelin).

1 Meriden School 113

2 Pymble Ladies' College 79

3 Endeavour Sports H 44

SENIOR BOYS

Trinity won five events, while Knox’s Kisho Carlino-Mizuno claiming the 100m. Trinity best included Indiana Murphy (long jump) and Joshua O’Connell (1500m).

1 Trinity Grammar School 44

2 Barker College 14

3 Knox Grammar School 6

Link to the results and point scores: https://www.nswathletics.org.au/events/252187

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Meriden’s Claudia Meaker and Pymble Ladies College’s Sarah Baker (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)