Students from Greater Shepparton Secondary College, Notre Dame College and Cobram Anglican Grammar School have sprinted, jumped and thrown everything at their rival schools to advance past district and regional athletics carnivals to earn selection for the state competition, which was held at Albert Park on October 17.
And as the competition heated up and the quality got stronger, multiple Goulburn Valley teenagers held their weight.
Notre Dame’s Annabelle Novac placed third in the 17-year-old girls 100 metre hurdles, running a 15.79 time, only four-tenths slower than the gold medallist winner.
Likewise NDC’s Jack Gospel placed ever so close to a gold medal in the 18-20-year-old 800 metre dash, split by a tick under seven-tenths of a second as he recorded a time of 1:58:92.
For context, Gospel and the gold medallist from Emmanuel College finished eight seconds faster than the eventual bronze medallist.
But it wasn’t all heartbreaking for the Year 12 student, with Gospel smoking the competition in the 1500 metre event, recording a time of 4:08:46, a full seven seconds ahead of the second-placed runner.
Greater Shepparton Secondary College’s Lucy Potter celebrated similar results also, claiming second in the 200 metre sprint with a time of 27 seconds, and first in the 400 metre dash with a time of exactly one minute, to the millisecond.
Potter also narrowly finished fifth in the 100 metre sprint state final.
More podium finishes occured for the ‘super school’ with GSSC’s Ellie Robinson claiming second in 15-year-old shot put (11.04 metres) and Shalom Sasa winning bronze in the 18-20-year-old discus throw (18.15 metres).
Cobram Anglican Grammar School’s Jack Brown was quick off the mark - in fact the quickest - as he and brother Samuel did the school proud as the sole representatives, with Jack winning the 800 metre and 1500 metre run in times of 2:11:65 and 4:23:00.
Goulburn Valley’s top performers at School Sport Victoria state athletics
Notre Dame College:
Annabelle Novac – third in girls 17-year-old 100 metre hurdles
Isla Shaw – 12th in girls 15-year-old 1500 metre run
Fletcher Hicks – fifth in boys 14year-old 400 metre run
Zara Ludeman – seventh in girls 16-year-old 200 metre sprint
Summa Sidebottom - fourth in girls 15-year-old high jump
Jack Gospel – second in boys 18-20-year-old 800 metre run, first in boys 18-20-year-old 1500 metre run
Greater Shepparton Secondary College:
Lucy Potter - second in girls 17-year-old 200 metre sprint, first in girls 17-year-old 400 metre run
Ellie Robinson - second in girls 15-year-old shot put
Shalom Sasa - third in girls 18-20-year-old discus throw
Maddison Robinson -fifth in girls 14-year-old discus throw
Cobram Anglican Grammar School:
Jack Brown - first in 12-13-year-old 800 metre run, 1500 metre run
Samuel Brown - fifth in boy 15-year-old 100 metre hurdles, fourth in boys 800 metre run, 14th in boys 15-year-old 1500 metre run
