It was a busy week of athletics as SMUS rowing crews ventured up island for the prestigious Brentwood International Regatta, while the SMUS campus was bustling hosting the ISAA Badminton and Senior Girls Soccer Championships. The Blue Jags hoisted the ISAA Championship trophy after beating Collingwood in the final. SMUS rugby, soccer, squash, golf and track and field teams were also all competing last week.
Rowing
The SMUS Rowing team captured four medals and placed 12 crews within the top six of their respective events at the 53rd Brentwood International Regatta held over the weekend.
Thirty-two SMUS rowers took part in the major event, which included club and school teams from Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, Oregon, and Washington. Entries this year were almost back to pre-pandemic level, with more than 1,100 athletes racing in the regatta.
As is typical for the Brentwood Regatta, weather was a factor throughout the three days of racing. Weather impacted racing for eight hours on Saturday and late Sunday morning, which terminated the regatta.
Highlighting the SMUS performance was the U19 Men’s 72.5-kg 4+ crew, which won silver in its category. Earning bronze medals for SMUS were the U19 Women’s 63-kg 1X, the U19 Women’s JV 4+ (which missed a silver by 0.1 seconds), and the U17 Women’s 4+.
Earning a fourth-place finish was the SMUS U17 Men’s JV 8+ boat, while fifth-place honours went to the U17 Women’s 2X (which missed bronze by 1.5 seconds), the U17 Men’s 4+, the U19 Men’s Novice 4X+, and the U19 Women’s Novice 4X+.
Taking sixth place in their events for SMUS were the U19 Men’s Novice 4X+ and the U17 Men’s 8+.
The SMUS Crew’s final regatta of the season – before selected crews will compete at the Canadian Secondary School Championships in Ontario – will be the Shawnigan Lake Regatta May 9 to 11.
Senior Girls Soccer
The SMUS Senior Girls Soccer team continued its impressive season by hosting and winning the Independent Schools Athletic Association Tournament on Friday and Saturday.
The Blue Jags won four straight games and capped off the ISAA-title performance with a 3-1 victory over Collingwood in Saturday afternoon’s final. Julia Rothwell scored twice for SMUS in the championship game while Joss Olcen had a single.
In preliminary pool play, SMUS goalkeeper Indigo Edgington backstopped a pair of shutouts as the Blue Jags blanked Shawnigan Lake 5-0 and York House 1-0 in their Friday games. Mackenna Brown scored twice against Shawnigan while Olcen, Rothwell and Cate Pontefract also found the back of the net. Rothwell scored the lone goal in the win against rival York House, which was the Blue Jags’ closest game of the tournament. The third SMUS preliminary-round win was a 1-0 forfeit by Mulgrave.
The Blue Jags took their first and only loss of the season thus far last Tuesday, falling 4-2 to a strong Spectrum side in a Lower Island Tier 1 league first-place showdown. Kate Fraser and Kate McQueen scored for SMUS in the loss.
The Senior Girls will host Stelly’s in their final game of the regular season this Tuesday (April 29) at 3:45 pm. The Blue Jags sit second in the standings with five wins, a tie and a loss and will also host a Ryan Cup quarter-final playoff game this Thursday.
Junior Girls Soccer
The SMUS Junior Girls Soccer team’s season came to an end on Thursday with a 5-2 road loss to Stelly’s. The victory gave the Stingers the final Lower Island league playoff spot.
Clara Pressello and Elspeth Rodger scored for the Blue Jags in the loss.
The Junior Jags finished fifth in league play this season with two wins, a tie and three losses.
Badminton
The SMUS Badminton teams enjoyed a busy and successful week, earning Lower Island league wins at Claremont on Tuesday and then capturing four medals as they hosted the ISAA Tournament on Thursday.
The Blue Jag Boys took ISAA silver in both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 competitions on Thursday. Meanwhile, the SMUS Girls won bronze in Tier 1 and silver in Tier 2.
Outstanding SMUS performances came from Nicole Meng and Janette Ooi in Tier 1 Girls play and from Grade 9s Ellie Whitehouse and Lisa Pai in Tier 2.
For the SMUS Boys, Kyle Shek and Jerry Dang were standouts in Tier 1, while Humphrey Yang and Sam Wei, playing doubles, as well as Oscar He, in singles, shone in Tier 2.
On Tuesday at Claremont, the SMUS Boys prevailed 6-1 while the Girls defeated the host Spartans 5-2.
SMUS will host teams from Oak Bay in Lower Island action on Thursday beginning at 3:45 pm.
Squash
SMUS Squash team members earned six podium finishes in the final Silver Series tournament of the year on Saturday at Shawnigan Lake School.
Twenty SMUS athletes participated in the event, highlighted by Max Arndt’s first-place finish in Tier 1. Teammate Kieran MacKay was second in the same category.
Keith Alexander took first in Tier 2, followed by teammate Justin Tam in second. Wilson Kong placed third in Tier 3 while Arpit Birdi was first in the Tier 5 category.
Arndt and MacKay, along with SMUS teammates Roshan Pathak, Anderson Brown, Carsten Rodger, Elliot Judson, and Mila Lampa, are heading to Toronto on Wednesday to compete in the Canadian Junior Nationals before the school squash season wraps up for the year.
“It’s been a fantastic season for SMUS Squash,” said Head Coach Grace Thomas. “Across our three squads, we played in 20 tournaments with strong results throughout. Our players worked hard, improved steadily, and competed with great energy all year. I’m excited to see our A team take the national stage this week to close out a great year.”
Senior Boys Rugby
The SMUS Senior Boys Rugby team, which sits third in the latest BC AA rankings, fell 43-0 to No. 1-ranked Collingwood in Vancouver last Wednesday.
The Blue Jags will now prepare for Saturday’s annual Boot Game against Oak Bay, which is combined this year with Alumni Weekend festivities. That game begins at 3:15 pm at SMUS.
Junior Boys Rugby
The SMUS Junior Boys Rugby team got two tries from Sebastian Ely as it edged host Claremont 36-31 in Lower Island action last Tuesday.
Single tries came from Kieran MacKay, Toma Pittman, and Remy Albert. Liam Whiteside kicked a penalty goal and four conversions in the win.
The Junior Boys will also take part in an Alumni Weekend match against visiting Oak Bay. That game will begin on Saturday at 12:30 pm.
Senior Girls Rugby 7s
The Senior Girls Rugby 7s dropped two Lower Island league games on Friday afternoon at Esquimalt against very strong competition.
The Blue Jags fell 30-0 to the host squad in their first game, despite some incredible handling skills displayed by SMUS Captain Kai Ross and terrific defensive strength from Grade 10 Sonia Naimi.
SMUS lost 43-0 to Claremont in its second game of the day. Fresh off her Tropical 7s tournament with Castaway Wanderers RFC, Abby Farish’s strong runs were noticeable for the Blue Jags in the loss. Carlotta D’Amico displayed an impressive work rate to the last minute and Peyton Driscoll showed great improvement facing a powerful Claremont side for the second time.
The Blue Jags will meet Oak Bay and Royal Bay as they host a league play date Monday (April 28) beginning at 3:45 pm. They will also face Oak Bay on Saturday in a 2 pm kickoff as part of Alumni Weekend.
Track and Field
Thirty-two members of the SMUS Track and Field team took part in the fourth meet of the Lower Island league season last Wednesday at Centennial Stadium.
Highlights included Grade 11 Parker Sheehan in the 100 metres – an event in which he currently sits first among Lower Island runners – and a personal-best performance of 3.05 metres in the pole vault by Martin Winnett, who is first in that event as well.
Other standout SMUS performances Wednesday came from Sophie De Launiere in the 200-metre steeplechase, Josh Hobbs in the 400, Caitlyn Chen in triple jump, Isaac Ren in the 1,500, Tommy Hong in high jump, Sheehan in the 400, Alex Pan in the 100, Jaiden Daniels in triple jump, Owen Sandquist-Sherman in the 2,000 steeplechase, Will Cuddihy in the 1,500 racewalk, William Low in high jump, and Kevin Yin in triple jump.
The SMUS team takes part in its fifth Lower Island league meet this Wednesday.
Golf
Jeff Su and Austin Yang posted the SMUS Golf team’s best round, respectively, on Days 1 and 2 of the 38th annual Victoria City Police Tournament last week at Olympic View.
Su shot a 77 on Wednesday and finished 23rd overall in the tournament. Yang had the Blue Jags’ low round on Thursday with a 79 and finished 31st overall. The tournament included 144 golfers from 24 schools.
