Victorian school sport wrap: Athletics standouts, runs galore and national titles for Team Vic

The year 10 Caulfield Grammar student was victorious across the 400m, 4x100m, hurdles, shot put, discus, long jump, and triple jump.

“Normally it’s seven events in two days (for a heptathlon), but she did eight events in one day, it’s unreal,” said Caulfield athletics coach Kim Mulhall.

A typical heptathlon features the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200m, long jump, javelin throw, and 800m.

Mulhall credited Tarabay’s success across an array of disciplines at the APS athletics carnival to her mentality.

“She’s obviously talented and works really hard – but so do a lot of other people – for her it’s an unwavering belief in herself which I think is really rare in that demographic of young teenage girls,” Mulhall said.

“She’s just got that belief that she can do anything and she does and I think that’s what sets her apart.

“She’s pretty motivated and pretty driven and ultimately she’d like to make a senior team whether that’s a Comm Games or Olympics or World Champs, who knows. She’s got some pretty strong aspirations.”

Mulhall said three-time Olympic long jumper and dual Commonwealth Games silver medallist Brooke Buschkuehl (nee Stratton) was the only Caulfield Grammar athlete she could recall rivalling Tarabay’s success across a range of disciplines.

Tarabay has been a consistent state champion for her age in the heptathlon, while she also won a national crown at the championships in Perth last year.

Impressively, she has also won separate state titles in the 400m and throwing disciplines.

“She can do some of those events at a really high level … it’s so hard as a heptathlete to compete individually but she’s got quite a few events she’s doing that in,” Mulhall added.

“Hopefully she keeps it going and we see her in an Australian uniform one day.”

Tarabay wasn’t the only athlete to impress across the APS athletics carnival.

Khushi Deol of Wesley College won a whopping five girls distance events across the 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m and 4x400m – becoming the first athlete to do so.

HISTORY-MAKING TITLE

Scotch College won its first boys athletics premiership since 1978 after finishing 55 points clear of its closest challengers in Wesley College with a total of 557.5 points.

Bart Leeton was the school’s standout performer after completing a treble across the open 800m, 1500m, and 3000m races. Leeton was just the second athlete to achieve such a feat in APS history.

The girls athletics premiership was won by Haileybury with 312 points in a thrilling finish after the school cleared Wesley by just four points, with Caulfield Grammar rounding out a cutthroat podium with just six points separating all the schools.

CAREY GRAMMAR RUN-FEST

Carey Grammar enjoyed a dream start to life in its inaugural season in the APS/AGSV girls firsts cricket competition, with Lily Parker and Emma Johnston dominating with the bat in an emphatic 86-run win over Assumption College.

Parker piled on an unbeaten century while Johnstone finished on 89 not out to lead their side to 1-218 from 30 overs in the first innings.

Carey head of sport Jack Joslin said Parker had a “great set up” when it came to her batting.

“She strikes the ball all around the field, really good temperament, and the thing that stood out was their running between wickets,” Joslin said.

“For both of them their running between wickets was exceptional, they played shots to all parts of the ground and managed their innings really well given it was a 30-over game, they didn’t go out all guns blazing but put the balls away that needed to be dealt with.”

In the other round one match between Haileybury College and Wesley College, Eva Baird blasted eight sixes en route to an unbeaten 112 from just 79 deliveries to lift Wesley to 6-153 from 30 overs.

It wasn’t enough however as Haileybury made the runs with five wickets and seven overs to spare.

Both Parker and Baird will turn out for the Vic Metro under-19s at the national championships later this year.

NATIONAL TITLES FOR TEAM VIC

An array of national titles have been contested over the past week at the School Sport Australia national championships in Ballarat.

The Team Vic U12 boys made it back-to-back national cricket titles after topping the table. Yashwant Singh (210 runs at 70), Om Joshi (167 runs at 41.75) and Charlie Damiano (103 runs at 51.5) all enjoyed exceptional carnivals with the bat. Joshi also picked up four wickets while Ishaan Burgu led the way with five.

The U12 girls cricket side also enjoyed a strong carnival with four wins and two losses. Pearl Sharma was exceptional with the bat and piled on 229 runs at 52.72, and she was aptly supported by Aadyha Patel and Aaradyah Patel. Isobel McBride (10 wickets) and Dhruvi Malu (9 wickets) were the top performers with the ball.

In soccer, the Vic Blue U12 boys finished just a point off becoming national champions, while the Vic Blue girls were two points shy.

In netball, the Team Vic U12 girls finished third, while the Team Vic boys took out the title after going through all 10 games undefeated – a remarkable achievement.

Got a school sports story worth sharing? Email mitch.bourke@news.com.au

Originally published as Victorian school sport wrap: Athletics standouts, runs galore and national titles for Team Vic