This week marked the official start of basketball season at SMUS, with Senior, Junior, and Middle School teams tipping off league play and gearing up for tournaments across the Island and beyond. The Squash program also delivered strong results at the UVic Open, earning multiple podium finishes, while October’s Athletes of the Month were recognized for standout performances in Cross Country and Rowing.
Senior School Boys Basketball
The SMUS Senior Boys Basketball team will open its Lower Island AA regular season with a home game on Tuesday against St. Andrew’s, beginning at 7:30 pm in the Single Gym. The Blue Jags are then off to the Independent Schools Athletic Association (ISAA) tournament from Thursday through Saturday at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver.
The Jags warmed up for their season-opener with the annual Alumni Game this past Saturday. Senior guard Dani Pelyhe poured in 41 points as SMUS fell 90-67 to a talented Alumni squad.
The SMUS Junior Boys Basketball team will also open its season this week with a Lower Island Division 1 home game against Brookes Westshore on Wednesday, beginning at 7:15 pm. The Junior Jags will then compete in the Victoria Junior Tip-off tournament on Friday and Saturday, opening with a 4 pm game on Friday vs. Dover Bay at Stelly’s.
Meanwhile, the Grade 9 Blue Jags are hard at work preparing for their season-opener on Thursday, Dec. 4, at 5:45 pm in a Lower Island Boys Division 2 league home game against Glenlyon Norfolk School. The Grade 9s, who looked sharp in a five-quarter exhibition scrimmage against the Juniors on Saturday, will also join the SMUS Juniors in the ISAA Junior Tournament field on Dec. 5 and 6 at Brentwood College.
Senior School Girls Basketball
The defending BC AA Champion SMUS Senior Girls Basketball team will tip off its season next week, travelling to Oak Bay for a Lower Island Division 1 game on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 5:45 pm.
The SMUS Junior Girls Basketball team will begin its Lower Island Division 1 season this week with a 5:45 pm home game on Wednesday against Mount Douglas. The Junior Girls will then co-host and play in the Victoria Tip-off tournament beginning Friday in the SMUS Single Gym against Ballenas at 2:30 pm.
Meanwhile, the SMUS Junior ‘B’ Girls will open their Lower Island Division 2 schedule with a home game on Monday, Dec. 1 at 4:15 pm vs. Glenlyon Norfolk.
Middle School Boys Basketball
The SMUS Grade 8 Boys Basketball team will open the Lower Island playoffs with a Round of 16 home game against Dunsmuir on Monday at 3:45 pm in the Single Gym.
The Grade 8 Jags went an impressive 7-1 on the regular season with their only loss a 50-48 squeaker last Monday at Monterey against the Storm, which finished just ahead of SMUS at 8-0 in the East Division.
A win this Monday would move the Blue Jags into another home playoff contest in the quarterfinal round this Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Grade 6 and 7 SMUS Boys Basketball teams won their respective divisions in Lower Island league regular-season play with perfect 4-0 records.
The Grade 6 Jags beat Royal Oak 31-9 in a quarterfinal playoff game last Thursday. They will play host to Bayside in a semifinal this Thursday at 3:45 pm.
The Grade 7 SMUS Boys got a first-round playoff bye after going 4-0. They will face Royal Oak in a quarterfinal this Tuesday at home, starting at 5 pm.
Middle School Girls Basketball
All three SMUS Middle School Girls competitive teams will see playoff action this week as well.
The SMUS Grade 8 Girls, who finished fifth in the regular season with a 5-4 record, will play Royal Oak in a quarterfinal matchup this Wednesday, tip-off time and location still to be determined.
The SMUS Grade 7 Girls, who went 4-0 in the regular season to top Pool A in the Grade 6-7 league standings, will play host to Royal Oak in a quarterfinal this Tuesday at 3:45 pm.
The SMUS Grade 6 Girls, who went 1-3 in Pool B in the same league, will play a cross-over game Tuesday at Dunsmuir beginning at 3:45 pm to wrap up their season.
Squash
Twenty-four members of the SMUS Squash Elite, A, B, and Middle School Competitive teams participated in the UVic Open this past weekend.
SMUS team members earned three first-place finishes as well as two second- and two third-place showings. Carys Van Alphen of SMUS was first in Women’s B, while Andrew MacEachern topped Men’s C, and Roy Park won Men’s D.
Taking second place were Kieran MacKay in Men’s B and Keith Alexander in Men’s C.
Finishing third were Max Arndt in Men’s A and Kevin Yin in Men’s D.
Upcoming tournaments for SMUS players include the Shawnigan Silver Tournament, Dec. 6 (A, B, and C teams), and the Canadian Junior Open in St. Catherines, Ont., Dec 13-16 (Elite team).
SMUS Athletes of the Month
Two Cross Country runners and five members of the SMUS Rowing team were honoured recently as October’s Senior School Athletes of the Month.
Finlay Hlannon, a Grade 12 who has been competing in Cross Country for two years, led the SMUS Senior Boys to a seventh-place team finish at the BC AA Championships in Nanoose Bay with an individual placing of 38th. He also posted the top Island Championships result for SMUS – 6th among all AA Senior Boys.
Rina Chida, a Grade 11 student who just completed her first year of Cross Country, was the lone SMUS Senior Girls qualifier for the BC Championship meet, where she finished 50th. She also ran to an eighth-place finish among Senior Girls AA competitors at the Island Championships.
The SMUS Women’s Youth 4X+ boat finished as the top Canadian high school crew at October’s prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Ma., placing 34th overall. That crew included Clara Curry, Braelyn Rowan, Lucy Turnbull, Elizabeth Hardcastle, and coxswain Bianca Batoni. It was the first time that SMUS rowers have ever competed in the Head of the Charles. “They had a brilliant race over 4,720 metres,” said SMUS Head of Rowing Susanne Walker Curry.
