Sport

Round six was an intense week of competition for GPS sports and activities, yielding some superb outcomes and records. The GPS Swimming Championships last held at Chandler on Friday. Our First VI Volleyball is poised for a strong possibility of securing a back-to-back premiership, while the cricket programme continues to deliver impressive results. The upcoming Firsts game against Ipswich Grammar School promises to be a highlight, with the chance to compete for a premiership against TSS the following week. Head of the River this Saturday will be a standout day for our crews, who have dedicated many months to rigorous preparation in anticipation of this event.

Please view the round six results at myChurchie – GPS Sports and Activities.

Cricket

Saturday saw Churchie take on Brisbane State High in the key fixtures for the day, with some supplementary matches against Nudgee, Terrace and BGS.

It was an outstanding day of cricket for Churchie, securing a clean sweep of wins in all A division matches. The First XI then added the icing on the cake, securing a nine-wicket double bonus point win to remain undefeated and move into second place on the ladder.

There were some exceptional team performances, with the Second XI scoring 231 runs in its 181-run win, while 10B, 10A and 11A secured wins with scores above 200. Also, 7A and 9A continued their unbeaten seasons, with comfortable six and eight-wicket wins.

Individually the standout performance of the day came was 10A’s Liam Stieper, who scored an incredible 144*, the highest score by a Churchie batsman at any level for a number of years. The innings were even more impressive given it was a top-of-the-table clash between two undefeated teams.

The First XI produced a clinical performance in their win at Fursden Road, restricting the BSHS First XI to just 101 before chasing the runs down in 19 overs for the loss of just one wicket. Angus Storen enjoyed an outstanding all-round performance taking 4/19 and scoring 44*. The left-arm spin duo of Rupert Bignall (2/13) and Henry Hiller (2/21) again fired with the ball, while Captain Jayden Draper finished 36*.

With so many high team scores on the day, there were numerous outstanding individual performances. Congratulations to the below players:  

• Angus Storen First XI 44* & 4/19
• Jake Arthur Second XI 66
• Riley Wondergem 11A 80* & 2/27
• Liam Stieper 10A 144*
• Jack Gillespie 10B 93
• Kane Kinnaird 9B 4/23
• Shoubhit Jain 8A 68*
• Jake Soo 8C 20* & 3/11
• Alex Watson 7B 71*
• Tully Fuss 6A 52

This week is a huge week for Churchie Cricket, with the annual Pink Stumps Round. The Pink Stumps Day barbeque will take place at lunchtime on Friday 8 March at the Viking Café courtyard. All food and merchandise sales from the weekend will be donated to the McGrath Foundation.

On the field, the undefeated First XI take on Ipswich Grammar School at Main Oval, a match-up between the teams currently second and third on the ladder. The match is a virtual semi-final, with the winner the best placed to challenge competition leaders The Southport School for the premiership. It will be great to get huge support from the cricket community at this match, once boys have finished their own matches.

James Patmore
Director of Cricket

Volleyball

Round six against BSHS was filled with nervous anticipation as many teams contended for premierships. Churchie ended the day securing 17 premierships, including 15 Official GPS titles.

The junior rounds were highly competitive, with BSHS winning all games in the Year 7 age group. Close results were seen throughout the day, although Churchie suffered losses in the 8A, 11A and 10C games. This round proved to be the most challenging so far, with Churchie experiencing the highest number of losses this season against a tough GPS opponent in BSHS. All teams fought hard, and some were unlucky to leave the court without a win.

In the First VI match, Churchie needed to defeat BSHS to keep their undefeated premiership hopes alive. Led by Cooper, the boys put on a dominant performance and convincingly beat a talented and determined BSHS team 3–0. With one round to go, the First VI must win every set to equal their incredible record from 2023 and secure their second consecutive undefeated premiership.

The upcoming round will be crucial, with the last senior games being played at home and junior games at Ipswich Grammar School. Additionally, Churchie’s 8D and 6A teams have the opportunity to secure their premiership hopes this weekend if they emerge victorious against IGS. This would bring Churchie’s tally to 19 GPS premierships in the 2024 season. It’s worth mentioning that Churchie’s Years 5 and 9 cohorts have remained undefeated throughout the season, positioning them as strong contenders for the team of the year title.

Special mention to these young men who have made the Met East teams:

• Daniel Godfrey (12 to 15 years)
• Cooper Sharpe, Ben van Heerden, Luka Sazdov and Wil Fearnley (16 to 19 years).

Don’t forget the End of Season early bird ticket price ends next week.

Good luck to all teams and all those competing across Churchie cocurricular in Round 7.

Carrie Mill
Director of Volleyball

Swimming

It was another podium finish for our Junior Churchie Swim Team on Friday, second to Terrace by only 9.5 points. Our Seniors achieved a commendable fifth place. The 10 to 12 years and under boys successfully secured an additional 33 points compared to 2023. Our 13 years and under to Opens, despite dropping 20 points, remained ahead of TSS and State High by 8 points.

Congratulations to our 10 to 12 years and under athletes for their amazing performance throughout the day:

• 13 athletes placed first in their division events
• 12 athletes placed second in their division events
• 8 athletes placed third in their division events

This shows an increase from the 2023 numbers of top three placings.

The Junior relay teams were outstanding, with three of our eight teams placing first. Further congratulations to the 10 years and under medley division one relay team for placing second and to our 12 years and under medley division one relay team and their achieved time of 2:22.88, only 4.59 off the record set in 2023.

The highlight of the meet for the reserve boys, as a group, was the invitation to the pool deck to experience warm-up and event marshalling. It was until our relay teams became cold in the marshalling room and our junior reserves leapt into action, gathering warm dry towels from the grandstands and delivering the towels to their fellow teammates in the marshalling room. Well done to our reserves and all the boys for their performance and persistence throughout the meet.

For the first time in 21 years, Churchie unfortunately didn’t have a single athlete achieve a first-place result throughout the 2024 GPS Championship. This was completely overshadowed by the consistent top performances across all age groups. The team of boys produced five second-place finishes, five third-place finishes and six fourth-place finishes in their individual events.

Across the age groups, there were many consistent performances; however, there were four outstanding first-place performances.

• Matty Forrest with a time of 27.23 earning him third place in 13 years and under 50 m freestyle.
• Both Max Cunningham and Spencer Kilimnik: 24.94 and 24.95 placing second and fourth in their respective age groups in 50 m freestyle.
• Boe Duncan once again proved his dominance in the breaststroke with a 34.48 in the 14 years and under earning second place.
• Ethan Norton with a time of 30.11 and a 2024 season PB in the 16 years and under 50 m backstroke.
• All age 200 m individual medley – William Shepherd-Smith, with a time of 2:11.47 just missing a first-place finish by 0.71 to Ike Martinez.

The top highlight of the afternoon was the relay battles. Three out of the 10 Churchie teams placed within the top five placings.

Outstanding relay performance was awarded to the 15 years and under Medley Relay team won and took out third place with a time of 1:59.70. Congratulations to Maxwell Cunningham, Jaden Soh, Flynn Swift and Will Hansen.

We would also like to pay special mention to both Jonathan Ling and Henry Majer for their performances in the 16 years and under relays. Due to illness, both relay team lineups were changed and Henry stepped into the medley for the breaststroke leg and Jonathan raced down from the grandstand to join the freestyle relay during warm-up. Thank you, boys, for stepping up and competing at a moment’s notice.

Congratulations to our athletes for their amazing performance throughout the day:

• In five events Churchie placed second.
• In five events Churchie placed third.
• In six events Churchie placed fourth.

End of season awards

The season concluded on Saturday with the Award Presentations, congratulations to the following award recipients:

Spirit awards

• 13 years and under – Albert Davies
• 14 years and under – Hugh Baxby
• 15 years and under – Henry Wilford
• 16 years and under – Finlay Pollack
• Opens and under – Nick Mattiske

Coaches awards

• 13 years and under – Henry Juniper
• 14 years and under – William Shooter
• 15 years and under – Jaden Soh
• 16 years and under – Henry Majer
• Opens and under – Nicholas Moody

GPS Championship MVP

• 13 years – Matthew Forrest
• 14 years – Boe Duncan
• 15 years – Maxwell Cunningham
• 16 years – Lachlan Evans
• Opens – William Shepherd-Smith

Outstanding team relay performance perpetual

• 15 years Medley Relay – Maxwell Cunningham, Jaden Soh, Flynn Swift and Will Hansen
• Spirit Award Perpetual – Benjamin Forrest

Thank you to the Swimming Support Group for arranging a wonderful event last Saturday and to everyone involved for an amazing season.

Jaye Finocchiaro
Director of Swimming

Rowing

Saturday was the penultimate round of racing before the Head of the River.

One round of racing across all age groups provided the opportunity to put the final touches on crew selection, seating, and race plans as schools fought for all-important seeding ranks going into Head of the River.

Our Year 9 crews set the tone with five podiums and a win for the Sixth quad (Ryhs Pollock, Archie Waller, Sid Ward, Elliot York and cox Will Wang), their third win in a row. The dominant display put them on every coach’s mind during our discussion for the crew of the year.

The Year 10 crews picked up where the juniors left off, going even stronger with six podiums and two wins to the Fourths (Alec Easton, John Bennett, Tom Searle, Jackson Brittain, and cox Sam Morris) and the Thirds (Jack Scott, Hamish De Luca Smith, Jack Townson, Benn Parker, and cox Reed Parker) completing a clean sweep of all regattas. Now they just need to repeat the feat at Head of the River in three days’ time.

Year 11 had a disturbed week of racing with illness affecting the firsts. Once again, we boated seconds and thirds boats which gives us confidence for a strong Open age group next season. Special mention must go to the Year 11 First VIII who finished second in the Open Division 3 race with a composite crew made up of one Year 12 (Marcus Pearce) and a Year 10 boy (Oscar Gray).

A standout for our Open division boats is the Open Second VIII; they had their best row of the year, pushing TSS right to the line to claim second and overlap on the TSS boat for the first time this season. Let’s see if they can take that final step this weekend. The Open First VIII came back from a poor start in their race with a few mishaps; some additional time at the dam post-regatta gave them the chance to run the course over several times and build confidence in their race plan for this week.

Tyson Sholl
Director of Rowing

Debating

Churchie’s fine performances in debating continued without pause in week six, with some strong wins across both our GPS and QDU teams.

On Wednesday, our Year 9 and 11 QDU team ventured into the competition, with the Year 9s venturing some distance to reach Ormiston College on a school night for 8 pm debates! Undaunted, both Year 9 teams came away with wins, as did our Year 11.1 team, who have thus far also been undefeated in all five GPS debates, and thus are a real standout amongst all of our strong teams vying for premierships. I have very high hopes that they can maintain the victories through their last two debates in the competition.

GPS round six was always going to be our toughest round. Brisbane State High School has featured strongly in the overall GPS placings in the last few years, and this was reflected in all three speakers of their Senior A side having made the top 12 of the Queensland State Debating Team trials process. However, the same could be said for us, with state team members Felix Mutinelli and Caelan Smith (and top 12 triallist Dario Lim) matching wits with State High for one of the most humorous, engaging and high-quality debates that I’ve seen in years. To a full crowd, the boys handled a feminism topic with sensitivity, respect and nuance. Despite winning over the crowd with devastating points of information, they went down in a narrow 2–1 split loss. Despite this, we still exited the round with more wins than losses, taking out 9 of the 16 debates on the evening. Well done to those successful teams—and in particular, also to 9.2, who are still unbeaten. I look forward to seeing our Year 7s, 8s and 12s debating in the QDU round this week, and for another afternoon of fun with the round seven matches against Ipswich Grammar School.

Finally, we are putting plans together for what we hope makes for an incredibly fun bye-round show debate and case-prep competition for all our GPS debaters. The Debating Support Group will be supplying pizzas for a gold coin donation, which will contribute to future debating events. However, up for grabs on the afternoon will be chocolate Easter prizes for the best team cases, which will then be capped off with a cracking show debate by our seniors Caelan Smith, Dario Lim, Bill McCart and George Samios, up against the considerable might of National Schools Debating Championship winner Harry Rae, Matthew Bond, Tom Morgan and Emmanuel Samios. We look forward to seeing all of the GPS debaters there.

Rebecca Hewitt
Director of Debating

Chess

We heartily congratulate  Sravan Renjith IM on being selected for the New Zealand Open Chess Team for the upcoming 45th Chess Olympiad to be hosted in Budapest, Hungary, 10–23 September 2024. He joins Churchie Old Boy and current senior coach as the only other member of the Churchie Chess to represent their country of birth in this international forum. This fantastic news was shared with our Secondary Interschool team as we competed in the Brisbane South Secondary School Chess competition held this term at Ipswich Grammar School.

Of the 20 students who travelled to this competition, over 50 per cent received commendations or medals. Nicholas Bond’s team won the A Division, with Sravan Renjith, Jayden Ooi and Ryan Xing placing first, second and third, respectively. Michael Lacey won the B Division with the highest personal score, resulting in our Year 7 team placing third overall. Our other teams also placed significantly in the A Division.

We have two more open chess tournaments this term before we select our teams for the GPS season in week three of term two. Our Fide Blitz competition is on Saturday 23 March and our primary chess team travels to Iona College on Tuesday 26 March.

As a community, we congratulate our current chess players, especially Michael and Sravan, for their recent personal successes.

Max Condon
Director of Churchie Chess

Sporting Achievements

Congratulations to the following students who have achieved representative success in their sporting pursuits:

Track and Field

On 24 February, Churchie athlete Adam Beiers ran 47.3 sec for the 400 m at a meet at QSAC. This time is a Churchie school record, breaking the 47.47 set by Huey Dieu that has stood since 2010. This time also places Adam as the number three, Under 18 time over 400 m in the world this year. Well done, Adam, on an outstanding performance.

Cross Country

In Cross Country news, Churchie Old Boy Charlie Moore (2023) finished second at the Australian Trials for the World Junior (Under 20) Cross Country Championships on 1 March. This means Charlie is an automatic selection in the Australian team to contest the World Junior Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on 30 March.

Congratulations Charlie on this wonderful achievement.

Basketball

Andrew Watene, Samson Kent and Ethan Hoy have been selected to represent Composite District 13-16 boys basketball team at the Metropolitan East Trials.

Swimming

Jacob Choi, Tully Fuss, Lucas Pollock, Xavier Ringholt, Harris Shonhan, Nash Walker and Henry Zhao have been selected to represent 10 to 12 years Metropolitan East Swim Team competing at the State Championships in Brisbane later this month.

Boe Duncan, Matthew Forrest and Jaden Soh representing 13 to 19 years Metropolitan East Swim Team competing at the State Championships in Brisbane later this month.

Volleyball

Daniel Godfrey was selected to represent Composite District 12 to 15 years boys volleyball team at the Metropolitan East Trials.

Sam Cooper, Cooper Sharpe, Ben Van Heerden, Luka Sazdov and Wil Fearnley were selected to represent the Composite District 16 to 19 years boys volleyball team at the Metropolitan East Trials.

Trent Goodrick
Head of Cocurricular