WINTER SPORT ROUND-UP

Rifles

There couldn’t be many more satisfying sporting accolades for a boy than to be named ‘King of the Range’ for outstanding performance in a sport. This winter season, the AAGPS Rifle-Shooting Championships at Hornsby Rifle Range, two Grammar boys were awarded this title.

Grammar has a long record of success in this event, and this year was no exception. The School came third in the competition for First teams, and second in the Seconds. The individual top-scoring shooters in both the First and Second competitions were Grammar boys: The King of the Range in the First competition – the boy with the highest aggregate score from the seven competing schools – was Yesung Cho (III); and The King of the Range for the Seconds competition was Kaden Edwards (III). Three Grammar boys were selected in the combined GPS team: Charles Cosgrove (IV), Christopher Sevastos (III) and Yesung Cho, who was named Captain of the GPS team.

Fencing

Success has become well and truly a habit in Grammar fencing. This winter, the Seniors and the Intermediates won National Team Championships, and the U14s and U16s teams won their NSW Schools League competitions. There were some outstanding individual performances at the Nationals, led by Daniel Mautner’s (VI) silver medal in the Senior event, and Ryan Zhu’s (II) silver in the Juniors.

Daniel Mautner also deserves praise for his outstanding captaincy of the School’s fencers. Daniel was a constant source of support and active encouragement for all the boys at training and on competition days.

Pictured: Senior medal-winners at the National Team Championships

Cross Country

Daniel was not by any means the only excellent captain for the School this year; indeed, we saw admirable leadership from the captains of all our winter sports. Matthew Scolyer (VI) provided great examples of dedication and leadership in cross-country, a sport that has grown considerably in such a short time. Grammar’s runners in all three categories – Junior, Intermediate and Senior – were conspicuous this season for the committed and vociferous support they gave to each other on GPS race days. The camaraderie between our runners is impressive to see, and it’s leading to more podium finishes and more PBs. There were great efforts from a number of our runners this season, but Solomon Tan (III) and, above all, Julian Wylie (IV) were the pick of them.

Athletics

Julian’s success in running this season wasn’t limited to the cross-country track. His dominant performance in the U16 1500m at the AAGPS Athletics Championships at Homebush last month was the culmination for him of a terrific series of track performances during the athletics season.

Athletics underwent significant renewal at Grammar this year, with the School taking a contingent of nearly one hundred runners to the final meet at SOPAC. Alongside Julian’s, there were some very pleasing efforts on the track and in the field this season. The pick of them would be Jackson Dyne (IV) tying for first in the Open High Jump, and Adrian Luong (I) winning the U13 Long Jump; but it was also great to see Bastian Tsiamis (I) second-place in the U13 100m final, athletics captain Milo Abrahams’ (VI) third-place finishes in the Open 100m and Open 200m finals, and the U13 4X100m relay team’s School record-breaking thirdplace finish.

Julian Wylie (IV) winning the under 16 1500m.jpg

Pictured: AAGPS Athletics Championships; Julian Wylie (IV) winning the under 16 1500m

Pictured: AAGPS Athletics Championships; Jackson Dyne (IV) high jump

Football

There was success this season for the Grammar football programme with the Seconds winning the pre-season Plate Cup with a 1-0 win over Shore, and then going on to finish a close runner-up in the Seconds competition to Newington College. The First team had a mid-table finish, but fought hard through each of their games, with tenacious midfielders Charlie Ward and inspirational captain Zachary Marinos (both VI) leading the way.

An especially pleasing result was the final round 4-1 win over Shore on Weigall 4, where a Rufus McGuinness (IV) volley, and goals in their final ever Grammar games for Charlie, Zachary and Nick Hansen Weeks (VI) got the job done. Looking to the future, it was heartening to see the tremendous defensive efforts this season of Jonty Snyman, Rohan Saha and Hugo Ward (all IV), players with two more seasons of Grammar football in front of them.

Rugby

For the rugby club, it was a very good year for the First XV, that came down to a final-game shootout with The Scots College at Scots for the Third XV premiership. The team played very well on the day, but just couldn’t get the win, going down narrowly. In a season of many highlights for the First team, the win over St Ignatius’ College was memorable, featuring Hugo Lockhart’s (V) conversion charge-down, and Fletcher Platt’s (VI) try under the posts in front of a big crowd on the hill at Leichhardt Oval. Another especially memorable win for the Firsts was the 13-12 first-round victory over St Joseph’s College on Back to Weigall Day, where the Baffsky brothers – Bo (VI) and Arky (IV) – linked up on the right edge to score the match-deciding try, bringing to fruition a backline movement that coach Tim Clark described as the first of many times the team really clicked into gear this season.

Taekwondo

A successful Taekwondo season has culminated in the Grammar team finishing second to Shore in both the end-of-season All Schools Tournament and the Teams Competition, which was run during Term III. At the All Schools, a number of our boys won individual gold medals: Preston Tran (I), Mateo Janevski (II), Thomas Conisbee (III), James Young, Jake Kwan (both IV), and Andrew Bein (V).

Volleyball

Our competition volleyballers had a good season, with both the First and Second teams finishing third in their respective GPS competitions. The entire cohort of volleyballers is probably the strongest the School has ever had, as evidenced by ten boys from the U14s to the Open teams being selected for State representation. Finlay McDonald (VI) won selection to the U19s Australian team, and inspirational volleyball captain Sam Garvin (VI) won a National Indoor gold medal. Grammar volleyball celebrates its twentyfifth year in 2023, and the club fielded a record eighteen teams this season. It’s a sport that will continue to grow and thrive, and we need look no further than this season’s undefeated 13As for evidence that the sport will continue to be played at the highest level at the School.

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