After a wild night of wind and rain, the glorious sun shone down on us at the State Athletics Centre for our annual House Athletics Carnival. 20 buses transported nearly 1300 students from Years 5-12 to the venue, ready for a great day of friendly rivalry. The Houses competed in track and field events and showed tremendous spirit working together in the novelty events. Today was an example of the College being one school. It was great to see the Year 12s support the younger girls, cheering them and giving great encouragement to those further back in the field. They clearly demonstrated our Mercy values.

After talking to some Year 7 students I wanted to share their comments…

“There was lots of cheering from the stands while the girls ran their races and the House spirit was amazing”.

“ It was so good to see all the girls smiling and cheering for their Houses”.

“At the end, each House took their turn in singing a cheer and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves so much.”

With ‘Grit’ as our focus this year, it was great to see girls having a go, filling places when others were absent and giving their absolute best to all events. The Year 5s running the 800m and our new Year 7s trying shotput and javelin showed great courage. The 4x100m relays providing an exciting finish as all Houses competed for the final points. The Year 12s saw their last carnival as a great opportunity to ensure they gave 100% support to each other and to their House in every event.Our House Captains and House Co-ordinators played a vital role in organising participants from their Houses. Thanks must go to our superb team of PE teachers who, under the leadership of Emma Wood, ensured the carnival ran smoothly. Thanks to all parents who joined us as spectators and all our coaches, teachers and parent volunteers.

Congratulations to Kelly House who won the Athletics trophy for 2018. They were very consistent gaining places across all track and field and novelty events. They also had three Champion Girls.The House points were: Congratulations to the girls awarded a Champion Girl trophy; these girls demonstrated outstanding commitment to sport with excellent performances across seven events.The Year group champions and runner-ups are as follows: Congratulations to all involved in such a successful day.