Sport

Churchie hosted a successful first GPS Cross Country meet last Friday, while our Term 1 sports and activities drew to a close with a bye round this weekend. Looking ahead, Term 2 sports and activities are gearing up for a strong start to begin round one, with the team selection process mostly completed and training in progress.

After another exciting GPS round eight last weekend, we invite everyone to see the weekend’s results summary via myChurchie – GPS Sports and Activities.

Cross Country

The first GPS practice meet was held at Churchie last Friday and the Churchie Cross Country team started the season extremely well.

There were some outstanding individual runs:

• Daniel Lane – 3rd (13 Years)
• Andrew McConnel – 3rd (14 Years)
• Zac Moore – 1st (15 Years)
• Lachlan Moore – 1st (16 Years)

The team also performed very well with Churchie winning the meet.

• 1st: Churchie (43 points)
• 2nd: Gregory Terrace (34 points)
• 3rd: Brisbane State High School ( 32 points)

The team now looks forward to the second practice meet of the season at TSS this Friday.

Michael Simes
Director of Cross Country

Debating

GPS Debating concluded for us Friday, with an away round at The Southport School. TSS always puts up a good fight, and faced with some devilishly hard topics, it was a big afternoon of competition. Outcomes in the first round were strong. All but one team won their debates in the 4:15 pm and 5:15 pm timeslots, while results were more balanced in the 6:15 pm bracket. Nevertheless, 12 of 18 teams prevailed, several achieving joint or outright premierships. While we cannot be certain of our overall placements until the completion of the round nine all the other schools, we have some clear and decisive top-of-the-table results for 8.1, 9.1, 9.2, 11.1 and 12.1 teams. Likewise, congratulations to the Senior A boys for consolidating their clear third place overall. To Dario, Caelan, Finbar and Felix, we are so proud of your leadership and contributions to the sport and for our outstanding unanimous panel win on Friday night.

Rounding off our competition will be our trivia and show debate on Friday as the final GPS training session of the year. The topics have been picked, the chocolate bunnies have been purchased, and the hype is building for the showdown between star senior speakers and their revered alumni opposition. So be at Viking Café in your blues at 3:10 pm this Friday to show your skill and knowledge and potentially walk away with enough chocolate to fill your Easter hampers.

Rebecca Hewitt
Director of Debating

Cricket

Saturday’s round of the GPS Cricket saw Churchie take on powerhouse TSS in the our final round of matches for the season.

With TSS having won nine of the last 14 First XI premierships, with strength across all age levels, meeting them in our final round was a test of how far Churchie Cricket has grown and developed across 2024. Ultimately the boys in blue and grey more than held their own. They won 12 of the 22 official matches played against TSS, including winning all four Prep School matches .

Impressively, the Year 12s also enjoyed outstanding success, with the Second, Third and Fourth XIs victorious in their final ever matches for the School, an outstanding finish to their Churchie Cricket careers.

Importantly, wins by the Third XI and 10A saw them join 9A in securing first place on their ladder for the 2024 season. With points being secured for the final round bye, numerous teams, including 5C, 7B and 8A could all join them as first-place finishers for the season. Well done to all of those teams for the outstanding success they have enjoyed throughout 2024.

The First XI match against promised to be a high-quality contest between first and third placed teams on the ladder. It did not disappoint. With Churchie needing to win to keep alive premiership hopes, the boys batted first, and, in a rare occurrence over the last ten years, TSS faced serious pressure on their home turf, with a blistering 61 from Rupert Bignall, who was promoted up the order, helping Churchie post a very strong 8/221. Rupert was well supported in the innings by Angus Storen (50) and Jayden Draper (34).

TSS, however, demonstrated their  powerhouse status, scoring 30 runs in the first three overs to put them ahead of the run chase. Churchie stayed toe-to-toe from there, taking regular wickets to keep themselves in the contest. However, ultimately TSS proved too good, chasing the total six wickets down with three overs to spare.

The result means that Churchie will finish the season in third place, the first time the School has recorded a top-three placing in First XI cricket since 2014. A TSS win next week will see them claim a tenth premiership in 15 seasons.

A number of boys, especially Year 12 boys, enjoyed an outstanding performance in their final games of the season, particularly Ben Donger, who hit an incredible 100 off 40 balls, to get the Fourth XI across the line. Congratulations to the players listed below.

• Rupert Bignall First XI 61
• Angus Storen First XI 50
• Sam Wilkins Second XI 4/12
• Conor Wrigley Third XI 88*
• Hamon McKenzie Third XI 4/16
• Ben Donger Fourth XI 100
• Will Souter 10A 72
• Lachlan Moore 10A 54
• Max Johnstone 7A 95
• Teddy Chandler 8B 67
• Alex Ramage 7A 4/31

The season will officially conclude this Saturday evening with the End of Season Dinner at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. We look forward to seeing the community come together to celebrate the successes of the 2024 season.

James Patmore
Director of Cricket

Water Polo

There has been a large number of boys registered in Years 7 and 8 to play in Term 2 which has resulted in the need for a trial this term. The trial will be held in Week 9 on Thursday 21 March from 7 to 8 am at the Churchie 25 m pool. 

The first part of the trial will require all boys to complete a 200 m time trial followed by a 4×25 m sprint session (you may wear goggles for the swim sets).

Alan Greenbank
Director of Water Polo

Sporting Achievements

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

Rugby

Congratulations to Jye Crothers and Treyvon Pritchard who were both selected for the Queensland U18 Rugby Union team. The team played two academy matches against NSW U18. Queensland, unfortunately, went down in both games; however, both Jye and Treyvon performed exceptionally well, and we look forward to further representative success coming their way.

Touch Football

Zac Griggs was selected to represent Composite District in the Boys 16 to 18 Years Touch Football Trials for Met East next week.

Track and Field

The Queensland Track and Field Club Championships were held at QSAC from 14 to 17 March and the State Club 3,000 m Championships on 2 March.

Churchie had several boys compete at these Championships with some excellent results.

Name	Age group	Event	Result
Jack Love	Under 20	200 m	1st
Jack Love	Under 20	400 m Hurdles	1st
Zac Moore	Under 16	2,000 m Steeplechase	1st
Zac Moore	Under 16	3,000 m	4th
Charles Lopes	Under 13	100 m	2nd
Charles Lopes	Under 13	200 m	2nd
Charles Lopes	Under 13	Long Jump	7th
Noah Tyne	Under 18	1,500 m	2nd
Noah Tyne	Under 18	800 m	4th
Noah Tyne	Under 18	3,000 m	6th
Adam Beiers	Under 20	400 m	3rd
Cruz Collins	Under 15	Long Jump	3rd
Cruz Collins	Under 15	Triple Jump	3rd
Cruz Collins	Under 15	Javelin	5th
Lachlan Moore	Under 17	3,000 m	3rd
Andrew McConnel	Under 15	3,000 m	4th
Alister Hillier	Under 17	3,000 m	11th

Trent Goodrick
Head of Cocurricular