From championship golf and standout performances at the Island Track and Field Championships to strong finishes in tennis, sailing, and rugby, SMUS athletes continued an impressive spring season last week. The Blue Jags also celebrated a special moment on the water with the christening of a new rowing shell honouring alumna and coach Firinne Rolfe ’21.
Golf
The SMUS Golf team captured the Vancouver Island AA Boys Championship last Wednesday at the Cowichan Golf Club in Duncan, beating runner-up Kwalikum by 14 strokes.
Ricardo Chen led the Blue Jags with a three-over-par 73 — the low individual score of the entire Island tournament. SMUS teammates Jeff Su and Sting Zhang each shot 74 and Austin Yang posted a 75, for a winning team total of 296. Su recorded an eagle on the ninth hole and Zhang won tournament closest-to-the-pin honours on the sixth.
The SMUS team is now preparing for the BC Championships, June 1-3 at the Redwoods Golf Course in Langley.
Track and Field
SMUS athletes posted an impressive seven first-place finishes at the Vancouver Island Track and Field Championships last week in Nanaimo.
Leading the way was double gold medallist Will Hamilton, who finished first in both the Junior Boys 100-metre and 300-metre hurdles. Other individual first-place finishes came from William Low in the Junior Boys high jump, Calvin Winnett in Junior Boys pole vault, and Martin Winnett in Senior Boys pole vault.
The Blue Jags two 4x100-metre Boys relay teams also ran to top spot in their finals. The Junior Boys 4x100 squad — including Hamilton, Low, Ben Keyes, and Tor Nelson – won their event, and the Senior Boys team of Parker Sheehan, Tommy Hong, Adam Zilber, and Martin Winnett claimed their second straight Island 4x100 relay title.
Sheehan also ran to a pair of second-place finishes in both the Senior Boys 100-metre and 200-metre sprints. In addition, he teamed up with Zilber, Josh Hobbs, and Milan Wenham to place second in the 4x400m relay.
Other second-place SMUS showings came from the Junior Boys 4x400m relay team (Hamilton, Nelson, Keyes, and Issac Ren); Alex MacKay in the Junior Boys 100-metre hurdles; and Declan Ross in Junior Boys triple jump. Taking third-place honours for SMUS was Seb Allard in Senior Boys shot put.
All the above-mentioned athletes qualified for the BC Track and Field Championships, June 4-6 in Langley.
Other SMUS athletes to qualify in additional events include Ren (4th in JB 1500m racewalk); Tommy Hong (4th in both SB 100m and high jump); Ross (4th in JB high jump); Santiago Rankin (5th in JB triple jump); Finlay Hlannon (5th in SB pole vault and 6th in triple jump); and Piper Geddes (5th in JG shot put and discus).
Other SMUS Top 10 Island finishes included:
Pascal Krawez (8th in JB 1500 metres, 9th in 1500 steeplechase, 10th in 3000 metres); Rhys Beare (10th in JB steeplechase); Keyes (7th in JB 400 metres); Zilber (8th in SB 400 metres; Hong (7th in SB long jump); Kevin Yin (10th in SB long jump); Henri Jungkind (8th in SB triple jump, 7th in 1500m steeplechase); Ross (10th in JB long jump); Amelie Menzebach (9th in SG long jump); Santiago Flores De Salvia (6th in SB shot put); Desmond Grant (9th in SB shot put); Calvin Winnett (7th in JB discus); Caitlyn Chen (7th in SG triple jump); Finlay Hlannon (6th in SB 400 hurdles; 6th in triple jump); and Geddes (8th in JG javelin).
Tennis
The SMUS Boys Tennis team earned seventh-place honours in the BC Championships, held last week at the UBC Tennis Centre. The Blue Jags beat Steveston-London 3-2 in their final match.
SMUS went 1-1 in its two opening-day matches last Wednesday. The Blue Jags defeated South Kamloops 4-1 and lost to eventual BC tournament champion Vancouver Magee 5-0 in preliminary pool play.
Those results moved SMUS into an early-morning quarterfinal on Thursday, where the Blue Jags fell 4-1 to eventual second-place finisher Sentinel. SMUS followed that up with a 4-1 loss to Moscrop in its first consolation-side match later Thursday.
Badminton
Both the SMUS Boys and Girls Badminton teams will compete in the BC Championships, beginning this Wednesday in Burnaby.
The Girls have been placed in preliminary pool D for opening-day play. They will face Prince George at 8 am on Wednesday, Alberni at 11:20 am, and Crofton House at 2:40 pm. All those matches will be played at BCIT.
The SMUS Boys are in preliminary pool G. They will play RE Mountain at 9:40 am on Wednesday, followed by matches against Lord Byng at 1 pm, and Moscrop at 4:20 pm. All their Wednesday matches will be played at the Christine Sinclair Community Centre.
The BC tournament will conclude on Friday.
Senior Boys Rugby
The Senior Boys Rugby season came to an end last Wednesday but not without a terrific battle by the shorthanded Blue Jags.
SMUS fell 24-19 to Oak Bay in the Island third-place match played at Shawnigan Lake in what Blue Jags Coach Clayton Daum described as a great game. The Jags led 14-12 at the half but could not hold on for the victory despite a sterling effort.
Quinn McMeekin scored a pair of tries for SMUS, both converted by Desmond Grant. Santiago Flores La Salvia contributed the team’s other try with the conversion attempt going off the post.
“The boys played outstanding with so much grit and pride … it was awesome,” Daum said.
With the win, Oak Bay clinched the third and final Island berth in the BC tournament.
Sailing
SMUS Sailing teams competed in the Discovery Cup, their first regatta of the season, last Saturday at Cadboro Bay.
In great conditions – with warm sunshine and increasing amounts of wind – the SMUS sailors enjoyed some great finishes in the 12 rounds of competition, with the SMUS 1 team winning gold, and SMUS 2 earning silver in the seven-team competition.
The SMUS 1 team comprised Pascal Krawez, Marcus Chee, Jai Tatra, Joshua Leung, Matty Kolinek, Emma Li, and Ruby Xu.
The SMUS 2 team, which finished a close second, consisted of Siena Gill, Bronwyn Ellis, Katheryn Sun, Miffy Tang, Molly Gu, Kayler Kim, Cici Song, Simon Liu, and Matthew Mok.
“Special mention should be made for Pascal Krawez, who won all his races by quite some distance,” said SMUS Coach David Kerr. “The sailors will be practising hard over the next two weeks in preparation for the final championship regatta on June 6.”
SMUS Athletes of the Month
Athletes from Senior Boys Tennis, Senior Girls Soccer, and Squash earned SMUS Athlete of the Month honours for April.
Captain Manon Denux led the Blue Jags into the Ryan Cup final and the Island AAA championship tournament in her final year of high school soccer. The Grade 12 midfielder was described by Coach Jackie Cunningham as “a dedicated, hard-working, box-to-box midfielder who leads by example both on and off the field.”
Squash standout Anderson Brown enjoyed a terrific season, including a fourth-place finish at April’s Canadian Junior Closed Championships. That performance, along with other notable finishes, has earned him a spot on Team Canada for July’s World Junior Championships.
Grade 11 tennis star Michael Liu led the SMUS Boys to a second-place finish at the Island tournament, beating the top singles players from Oak Bay, Shawnigan Lake, Claremont, and host Brentwood College. Heading into the BC Championships, he had not lost a set of singles all season.
Rowing
SMUS Rowing christened a new shell last week in honour of alumna Firinne Rolfe ’21, recognizing one of the program’s most accomplished recent athletes and the full-circle journey that brought her back to the SMUS docks.
Rolfe began rowing at SMUS in Grade 9 and went on to earn national medals, represent Canada at Junior Worlds, and secure a Division I scholarship to Northeastern University. During her time there, she helped lead the varsity eight to four consecutive conference championships, captained the team, graduated summa cum laude, and received the conference’s top award for leadership and athletic excellence.
Following graduation, Rolfe returned to the international stage, representing Canada in the U23 division at the 2025 Junior Pan American Games.
Now back at SMUS as a rowing coach, Rolfe is helping guide the next generation of Blue Jags athletes on the same waters where her own rowing journey began.
