WINTER SPORT ROUND-UP

Director of Sport Mr Johnathan Redenbach updates us with all the winter sport action.

 

Rifle Shooting

The standout achievement of the Grammar winter sport season was undoubtedly the winners-take-all performance by our rifle shooting team at this year’s AAGPS Rifle Shooting Championships. We began the two days of competition by winning the Rawson Cup, with five of our eight boys shooting near-perfect scores to get the team home by a single point. This victory was followed by wins in the NRA Shield (with perfect scores from Jacky Dong and Yesung Cho, both of Form IV), and the Buchanan Shield, featuring strong efforts from Yoon Cho (II), Yesung Cho and Matthew Wong (IV) ensuring that Grammar took the title of Championship Premiers, our first rifles premiership since 2014.


Pictured: The 2024 GPS Rifle Shooting Champions

Fencing

Our fencers were also hugely successful this season, something we’ve become used to in recent years from what is consistently Grammar’s most successful sport. The First team won the AJ Rae and RA White team competition, our Second team came third, and our U16A and B teams came first and second, respectively, in their categories. We had great individual success at the Roberta Nutt Competition with Alex Taylor (V) finishing first, Ryan Lo (VI) second, and Ryan Zhu (III) and Michael Sanderson (VI) equal-third.

Fencing Our fencers were also hugely successful this season, something we’ve become used to in recent years from what is consistently Grammar’s most successful sport. The First team won the AJ Rae and RA White team competition, our Second team came third, and our U16A and B teams came first and second, respectively, in their categories. We had great individual success at the Roberta Nutt Competition with Alex Taylor (V) finishing first, Ryan Lo (VI) second, and Ryan Zhu (III) and Michael Sanderson (VI) equal-third.

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Pictured: Senior Fencing Team – Nationals in Canberra

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Pictured: Junior Fencing Team – Nationals in Melbourne

Rugby

It was an important season for Grammar’s rugby players, our 150th since Grammar’s first match in 1874. The Rugby Club celebrated this milestone with a wonderful dinner at the School following the season’s last home game at Weigall, where the First XV beat Sydney Boys High School 57-0 to set up a final day fight for the premiership against The Shore School the following Saturday at Northbridge. Unfortunately, we lost that match to Shore by two points, but the School can be very proud of the boys’ second-place finish in the Third XV competition.

Cooper Coe, Oliver Dudley-Smith, George Gregor, Mathew Kernohan (all VI), and the Rugby Club captain, Will Powell (VI), are to be congratulated on their selection in the GPS White team, a pleasing recognition for their excellent seasons. Finally, congratulations must also go to the 14As, who were undefeated in GPS matches for the second year in a row.

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Football

The highlight of the football season was the premiership win by the Second team, with Jack Fraser (IV) scoring late at Shore to secure the title. The First team went close this year, finishing the season strongly to run into third position. Rufus McGuinness (V) was rewarded with GPS representation for a strong showing in the First team this season.

Other features of the season included the 15As having an undefeated season (Max Hancock (III) was the MVP), the 13Es putting nineteen goals past Sydney Boys High, and Gabe Lambros (I) and Alexander Bailey (I) scoring loads of goals for the U13As.

Cross Country

The standout of the cross country season was Julian Wylie (V) winning the final race at the GPS championship at Miranda. The senior cross country team had a very good year, and was only beaten into fourth at the very end of the programme. The team, led by captain Theo Walsh (V), worked very hard through the season to stay competitive. There were some excellent individual results across all categories, with Max Weatherall (VI), Julian Wylie and Solomon Tan (IV) having great seasons, along with Maran Rajeev (II) and Josh Westmoreland (I), who performed above his age each week.

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Taekwondo

It’s been an impressive season for Taekwondo with Grammar’s win in the All Schools tournament following our success in the First V competition. Grammar won six individual gold medals at the All Schools on the way to winning the Pahlke Cup for the eighth time in the past ten seasons. The ‘Fighting Five’ finished third in the First V competition, and there were again some very strong individual efforts. Captain Andrew Bein (VI) and Jake Kwan (V) won five out of eight First V fights, with Jake going three fights in a row without a point being scored against him. James Young’s (V) achievement is an outstanding one: his eight straight wins make him the first fighter to go undefeated in the First Five. Finally, it was great to see Oliver Shen (III) and Preston Tran (II) step up to the First Five during the season with pleasing results.


Pictured: Grammar Taekwondo wins the All Schools

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Volleyball

Volleyball had its biggest season yet in terms of numbers, with over 220 boys playing the sport. The First and Second teams both finished third in their respective competitions, and the Third team finished undefeated. Most teams in the programme finished either first or second in terms of wins and losses.

There were quite a number of strong individual performances in volleyball. Lachlan Gray, Dean Chen and Jonah Jo (all Form I) had impressive seasons, as did Form II’s Joshua Hanley, Jo Braund and Jack Mason. Jackson Woollam, Adrian Kalantzis and Atticus Lee from Form III all stood out, as did Matias Guillen (IV), Ryan Zhao and Matthew Ngo (both V). Hinata Morishita-Lee and Aden Tay (both IV), Jamie Wallace (V), and Nirav Keshava and Jackson Mather (both VI) won CIS representation, and Jamie and Aden were selected for the GPS team. James Guo (III), Ashton Clarke (IV) and Aden Tay will represent NSW at the Australian Youth Volleyball Championships.


Pictured: Grammar’s volleyball representatives