Cross Country
This past Saturday in Surrey, the SMUS Senior Boys Cross Country team captured a bronze medal at the B.C. AA High School Championships. The Blue Jags earned 53 points to place third behind winner West Point Grey Academy (34), and Mennonite Educational Institute (49) in the 44-team boys’ race.
Grade 11 runner Owen Sandquist-Sherman led the way, finishing fifth out of 142 competitors over the 5,000 m course in a time of 15:48.47. Peter Kunka of Summerland Secondary won the AA crown with a time of 15:30.93.
Luc Denux of the Blue Jags also cracked the top 10 in the race, finishing ninth in 16:27.87. SMUS teammates (25) and Eu-Rway Chew (49) finished among the top 50. Other SMUS finishers included: Matthew Singh (58), Rentaro Sakairi (91), and Gabriel Glyb (94).
Meanwhile, Nella Meinecke of SMUS took sixth place in the Senior Girls AA race, finishing the 5,000 m course in 19:18.38. Meinecke helped the Blue Jags to a ninth-place finish out of 40 teams, while teammate Beatrice Sharpe posted a 33-place finish at 21:23.14. Other SMUS finishers included: Amelie Fleck (77), Yashita Kaku (88), Avery Geddes (93), Sophie De Launiere (100), and Katharina Bohmann (107).
Senior Boys Soccer
The SMUS Senior Boys Soccer team spent last week preparing to open the Island AA championship tournament that started on Monday at Courtenay’s Mark Isfeld Secondary.
The Blue Jags are in the tournament’s A Pool, along with Lambrick Park, Gulf Islands Secondary, and host Isfeld. The B Pool includes Brentwood College, St. Andrew’s, Wellington, and Stelly’s. The top four teams overall (after pool play) qualify for the Island semi-finals, and also advance to the B.C. AA tournament Nov. 20 to 22 in Burnaby.
Field Hockey
The SMUS Senior Girls Field Hockey team is defending its provincial crown at this week’s B.C. AA championship tournament, hosted by Collingwood School in West Vancouver.
The Blue Jags are in Pool B with Sutherland, Southridge, and York House. The tournament began Monday with quarter-finals on Tuesday, and both semi-finals and finals on Wednesday.
Also last week, Rebecca Stone, a member of the 2022 SMUS championship team (who hosted and won the B.C. AA championship last year) added the USports national rookie of the year award to her mantle, as she helped the University of Victoria Vikes to a fifth straight national title. Last month, Canada West named Stone player of the year.
Senior Girls Volleyball
Last Tuesday, the Senior Girls Volleyball team hosted the opening round of the Lower Island AAA playoffs, and earned a split, beating Edward Milne in straight sets before dropping an exciting match to Stelly’s.
The Blue Jags beat Edward Milne (25-11; 25-11). Then, in front of a loud and supportive crowd, they fell in three sets to Stelly’s (19-25; 18-25; 13-15). Outstanding defence kept SMUS close with Stelly’s all-match, and a supportive serve-receive by Joss Olcen, Emily Wu, and Charlie Anderson, was key to the team’s solid showing.
As it was the last home game of the season, Blue Jags seniors Madeleine Albert, Katie Maybie, Tomoe Hayashi, and Ava Gillespie, were recognized for their contributions to the program.
SMUS now advances to the AAA Lower Island semi-final at Stelly's on Tuesday, where it faces third-place Esquimalt. The winner will advance to the Lower Island final. The top-three Lower Island teams advance to the Island championships Nov. 17 to 18 at Vic High.
Senior Boys Volleyball
The Senior Boys Volleyball team geared up for playoffs this week with a match win over Edward Milne (25-7; 25-11) and a split against AAA Mount Douglas.
The Blue Jags played one of their best sets of the season, beating Mount Douglas 25-16, before dropping the second game to the Rams.
SMUS meets Parkland in the Lower Island AA quarter-final playoffs this week.
Rowing
At the City Championships regatta on Elk Lake this weekend, SMUS Crew Rowers earned four first-place and five second-place finishes, with each crew impressively having “moved up a division from October Sprints,” according to SMUS Assistant Coach Sarah Hagkull.
“It’s impressive to see that all the crew made huge improvements over the past two weeks of training.”
Finishing first in their races for SMUS on Saturday were:
- the Junior Women’s 8+: Elizabeth Hardcastle, Jane Lee, Braelyn Rowan, Mira Wirk, Juliet Crowe, Molly Pollock, Annabel Taubenschlag, Clara Curry, and Bianca Batoni (cox);
- the Novice 4x: Joey Gao, Maxi den Boer, Elise Gomori, and William Zeng; and
- the Novice 4x: Evan Fuller, Jiahan Lai, Fraser Tuck, and Will Delisle.
Finishing first in their races for SMUS on Sunday were:
- SMUS’s Novice Men’s 8+: William Zeng, Jiahan Lai, Fraser Tuck, Will Delisle, Tristan Salter, Lucas Zhou, Avli Bell, Molly Pollock, and Caroline Tam (cox).
Second-place SMUS finishes included:
- the Senior Women’s 8+: Sophia Hop Hendy, Jaclyn Chow, Marlene Dietrich, Claire Lawler, Pippa Hlannon, Sophie Bosenberg, Avli Bell, Rowan Denis, and Caroline Tam (cox);
- the Senior Men’s 8+: Danny Kotze, Oliver Pressello, Brady Hsu, Cameron Jones, Tony Yu, Stephen Luis, William Song, Tiger Zhang, and Jaieme Aubertin (cox);
- the Novice 4x: Leo Denis, Tristan Salter, Lucas Zhou, and Liam Haberl;
- the Novice Men’s 8+: Joey Gao, Konstantin Sturany, Juliet Crowe, Sam Kriegler, Jason Zhang, Liam Haberl, Stephen Luis, Evan Fuller, and Jaclyn Chow (cox); and
- the Novice Junior Women’s 8+: Leo Denis, Jane Lee, Elise Gomori, Maxi den Boer, Sophia Hop Hendy, Elizabeth Hardcastle, Annabel Taubenschlag, Mira Wirk, and Bianca Batoni (cox).
Earning third-place honours for SMUS were:
- the Novice 4x: Konstantin Sturany, Jason Zhang, Sam Kriegler, and William Zeng; and
- the B Division 4x: Marlene Dietrich, Braelyn Rowan, Juliet Crowe, and Clara Curry.
Said Hagkull: “Now the athletes have two weeks to rest, recover, and get ahead of schoolwork—then we are back at it and into the winter/spring season on Nov. 20.”
Grade 9 Boys Rugby
Last Tuesday, the SMUS Grade 9 Rugby boys traveled to Brentwood for their final game of the fall season. Perhaps it was the drive up the Malahat, but the team started slowly and found themselves trailing by several tries at the break. Even though the Blue Jags showed better urgency and courage in the second half, the gap in the scoreline could not be closed and SMUS ultimately fell 10 tries to six.
Throughout the season, the highly experienced trio of Liam Whiteside, Santiago Flores La Salvia, and Liam Pope-Lau, led SMUS well and showcased an impressive set of skills. Newcomer Alfie Smith showed immense improvement and quickly became one of the most influential players. Kieran MacKay, Sebastian Ely, and Drew McLeish-Shaw consistently contributed on both sides of the ball, while Rodrigo De Leon Junco and Emilio Sanchez Valencia showed huge potential.
The Grade 9 boys now look ahead to the spring, when they will join up with the Grade 10s to play in the junior season.
Squash
Thirty-four SMUS senior school athletes competed in the UVic Open Squash tournament this past weekend, with Blue Jags athletes winning one division and finishing second in four others.
"Our A, B, and C teams fought hard all weekend and came away with some impressive results,” said SMUS Head Coach Grace Thomas. (In fact, it was Thomas who captured the Women’s Open Division title at the UVic event.)
SMUS athlete Amya Naimi took top spot in the Women’s B Division. Naimi had a strong tournament, dropping just one game all weekend in her semifinal match. She won the final by 11-9, 11-9, and 11-7 scores. Teammate Maia Hoechsmann finished fourth in the same division.
Among the more notable SMUS performances was a second-place showing in the Men’s A Division by Stuart Kerr, who played admirably throughout the weekend. He lost in three close sets in the final to a strong opponent (13-11, 13-11, 11-7).
Blue Jag athlete Maxx Yuen took second in the Men’s B Division. He made the final by grinding out five-set battles in both the quarter-final and semi-final. Yuen lost in the final in yet another five-set match (11-6; 6-11; 4-11; 13-11; 8-11). Teammate Max Arndt was fourth in the B Division.
In the Men's C Division, Jay Li of SMUS placed second while teammate Keith Alexander was third. In Men’s D, SMUS athletes Liam Shah, Eli Alexander and Siddharth Shetty placed second through fourth, respectively.
Soie Liao-Briere of SMUS took third in the Women’s C Division with teammate Elena Weiher finishing in fourth place.
In addition to Coach Thomas’ win in the Women’s Open Division, SMUS teachers David Kerr (3rd place, Men’s B) and Eric Donatelli (6th place, Men's A), also took part.
Meanwhile, three SMUS athletes travelled to Calgary over the weekend to compete in the 2023 Alberta Jesters Junior Open, a National Junior Championship event. Lucas Quon placed fifth in Boys U19. SMUS teammates Anderson Brown (7/8) and Roshan Pathak (11/12) also competed in a strong Boys U17 Division.
Blue Jag squash athletes now have a training stretch before the SMUS Silver Series (Dec. 1 to 2) and the Canadian Junior Open (Dec. 12 to 15).
SMUS Athletes of the Month
SMUS Athletics has begun honouring the senior school’s Athletes of the Month, recognizing outstanding achievement across a variety of sports.
The first SMUS Athletes of the Month (for October of this school year) are Cross Country runners Nella Meinecke and Owen Sandquist-Sherman, and Soccer striker Samuel Bruninx.
Meinecke, a Grade 12 student, finished third overall out of 114 runners in the Vancouver Island championships at Beaver Lake, and also won one of the four Lower Island series races, while placing second in another. As mentioned, she finished sixth in the B.C. AA girls championship race on Saturday as well.
Of the 106 boys in the Island championships, Grade 11 student Sandquist-Sherman placed fourth overall, and earned one first-place, and three second-place finishes in the Lower Island series races. As mentioned, Sandquist-Sherman finished fifth in the B.C. AA boys championship race in Surrey. Both runners led their SMUS teams to Vancouver Island AA titles.
Grade 12 student striker Bruninx, who co-captains the Senior Boys Soccer team, scored more than 15 goals (a number of them of the highlight-reel variety) assisted on several others, and helped his team qualify for the Island championship tournament this week in Courtenay. Soccer Head Coach Evan Fryer also lauded Bruninx for his outstanding work ethic and tremendous passion for the game.
