Seven Schools Come Together to Compete

On Friday 6 September, the PSA held the annual Athletics Carnival at the WA Athletics Stadium. Athletes from the seven member schools displayed ambition, determination and school pride, and it was encouraging to see the level of sportsmanship that was evident throughout the day. The Athletics Carnival provides an opportunity for students to test themselves against some of the best athletes in the state, while also developing valuable life skills and attitudes outside of the classroom, as they strived for excellence and the pursuit of personal bests.

Champion School and Event Placings

It was a neck and neck race at the top of the scoreboard throughout the day with the eyes of spectators constantly darting from the track or field to the leaderboard. Host school, Aquinas College, and defending Champions, Scotch College, were trading the lead repeatedly with a very close race for points playing out. In the middle of the table, it was also a very close affair with a blanket able to be thrown over third and fourth places, as with fifth and sixth. This meant that it was crucial for every school to rack up as many points as possible in every single event, with only a few points separating places, one excellent result could mean that final positions changed hands.

A big congratulations go out to the winning school, Scotch College. At the end of the day, they were able to come away victorious for a historic seventh title in a row. This is now an official PSA record as the longest winning streak by a school and the Scotch Team should be very proud of their achievement. Hot on their heels and taking the championship down to the wire was Aquinas College, Trinity College rounded out the podium a mere handful of points in front of Hale School.

PSA Records Shattered!

On a day where the conditions were perhaps not the most conducive to record breaking, a number of records were still toppled by some outstanding individual performances.

• In the Under 13 category, Luke Weber from Guildford Grammar School broke the 200m record with a time of 24.78 sec, bettering the old record set by Pathawi Edwards of Trinity College in 2019. He also broke the 400m record in a time of 57.11 sec, beating Scotch Old Boy Benjamin Avery’s old record of 58.20 set in 2012.
• The Under 14 category saw its 800m record broken by Fergus Khoo of Christ Church Grammar School, who recorded a time of 2 min 7.45 sec, to take the record away from Ethan Williams (2 min 8.10 sec) of Aquinas who has held it since 2011.
• In the Under 15 category there were also two records broken. Oliver Stampfl-MacDonald from Wesley College broke the 1500m record set by Jonah Hanikeri of Christ Church Grammar School, in 2021. The new record of 4 min 9.71 sec was almost a full 4 seconds faster than the outgoing time. In the Shot Put, Jimmy Strange from Aquinas College broke the record with a distance of 14.72m, edging out the 14.50m set by Trinity’s Kade Hampson in 2021.
• The Under 16 category had its Shot Put record broken by Luke Schaufler of Scotch College, with a throw of 15.58m. He takes the record from Bradley Fullgrabe of Guildford Grammar, set in 2013.
• The final record broken on the day was in the Under 17 category for Long Jump, where William Hatton of Aquinas College produced a jump of 6.77m to better the old record held by Reilly Cunningham of Hale School, set in 2020.

Carnival Wrap Up

The highlight of the Athletics Carnival is always undoubtedly the Open 4x 100m relay. With teams lining the outside of the track and all eyes in the stands on the track, the roar for the final event is a fitting farewell to the leavers of 2024 and saw Kai Gale storm down the home straight to seal a final win for Aquinas. As athletes or supporters the Athletics carnival marks for Year 12’s the crossing of the finish line as students, but the start of their journey as alumni.