Shalom College has scored big across a raft of school sports with champion teams in basketball, surf lifesaving, netball, table tennis and football.
Basketball team wins with perfect record
Shalom College claimed a famous victory in the Open Girls Second Division at the 2020 Champion Basketball Schools Queensland tournament at Shailer Park, taking out the title with a perfect record of seven wins from as many matches, sealing the gold medal with a 50-35 grand final victory over Varsity College Gold Coast.
They won their five pool matches against Varsity, St Columban’s, Chisholm Catholic, St Peter’s Lutheran and Good Shepherd Lutheran, before defeating Dakabin State High School 56-38 in the pool cross-over semi-final, on their way to their date with destiny.
The Shalom girls were the only team from Wide Bay to contest the event, and after winning Third Division at last year’s competition, their coach, former long-serving Bundaberg Bears State League champion Kylie Giles said they stepped up another level, brilliantly led by their co-captains Mekkija Redgard and Makayla Mortensen.
Mekkija took out their Best and Fairest award and amassed 17 points in the grand final to top off a superb tournament.
“We led from the start in every game except the grand final when they led by five, but we fought back and took control in the second quarter,” Kylie said.
Kylie said Shelby Cass was their Players’ Player and chipped in with 15 points in the decider, while Alyssa Cameron posted 12.
“Shelby was also fantastic and defensively was probably the Player of the Tournament – she was one of the biggest and she crashed the boards hard, but all went well in all games, and Tahlia Glover was one of our top-scorers in the semi-final – she was our go-to player – and Summer Woods, who is only 13, was also exceptional in an open competition.”
Kylie said they would lose only two players for next year – year 12’s Makayla and Tayla Pearson – and that they are all looking forward to taking the ultimate step to the Championship Division.
Shalom continues domination in surf lifesaving league
Shalom College continued their total domination of the annual Surf Life Saving Queensland School Surf League (Wide Bay) at Bargara by again claiming big wins in the Overall Pointscore – Champion School – and the Overall Percentage Pointscore Champions, as well as taking out three of the six age champion gongs.
Shalom amassed 462.5 points, with St Luke’s Anglican second on 172, followed by Kepnock 95, Bundaberg Christian College (BCC) 39, Bundaberg High 37, Bundaberg North High 32.5, Fraser Coast Anglican 22 and Urangan High 8.
In Average Points per Competitor, Shalom recorded 8.56, with St Luke’s on 5.06, Kepnock 3.39, BCC 3, North 2.32 and Bundaberg High 1.95.
Shalom’s age champions were Kobi Holden (U15 Male), Kasey Krueger, who was awarded the U13 Female title on a countback from Georgie Stephenson after both amassing 18 points, and Tommy Zunker (U13 Male).
St Luke’s had two age champions, Annie Harris, who chalked up a League-high 26 points in U15 Female, and her brother Lachlan (16+ Male).
Emmily Lingard (Fraser Coast Anglican) beat the locals for the 16+ Female title.
T20 comp hit for six
Shalom College took out the Schools T20 Wide Bay Intermediate (years 7-8-9) Division title for the fifth year in a row by defeating St Luke’s Anglican and Bundaberg State High (BSHS) in the recent District Gala Day round at Kendall’s Flat which were spread over two days due to rain.
Shalom defeated St Luke’s first-up on Friday, before BSHS had a 14-run victory over St Luke’s.
The Shalom-BSHS game was rescheduled to the following Wednesday and Shalom toughed out a win over the star-studded unit, amassing 5-119, then restricting their opponents to 6-96.
Captain Ned Jenner led out from the front for Shalom with 23 from 16 balls, while fellow opener River Felstead anchored the innings with 32 and Beau Marshman hit out for an unbeaten 17 from only 13 balls late in the innings.
In their chase, many BSHS batsmen made starts but none were able to go on with the job with opener Lachlan Heycox top-scoring with 21.
Oliver Boge was the most successful Shalom bowler with 2-12 from three overs, but all 12 players contributed, including twins Simon and Sean Millett each taking superb catches to remove the danger men.
But Queensland representative Lucy Hamilton was the Player of the Match with 13 runs at a strike-rate of 100% and leading the attack with 1-10 from four overs.
Beau’s twin Patrick also picked up two wickets late with his spin.
As there were no other Intermediate teams nominated from the other Wide Bay areas, as the Bundaberg champions, Shalom was also crowned Regional champions.
Shalom are also the only Bundaberg School nominated in the Open division of the tournament, which will contest the Wide Bay finals of the Challenge against the Maryborough-Hervey Bay, Gympie, and Burnett regions in Maryborough on Tuesday October 13.
Shalom have also won the Wide Bay open division for the past three years and went on to be beaten by St Joseph’s Nudgee in the State final last year, but there is no T20 state competition this year due to Covid-19.
Intermediate Results: Shalom 2-118 (Ned Jenner 24, River Felstead 21ret) d St Luke’s 1-75 (Lucy Hamilton 3-0-13-1).
BSHS 8-122 (Lachlan Heycox 38, Finlay Hallett 1-0-3-2, Jonty Murdoch 4-0-37-2) d St Luke’s 108.
Shalom 5-119 (River Felstead 32, Ned Jenner 23, Beau Marshman 17no) d BSHS 6-96 (Lachlan Heycox 21, Patrick Marshman 1-0-8-2, Oliver Boge 3-1-12-2).
Shalom takes school sports honours
Shalom College also took the honours on Bundaberg District Secondary Schools Sports Winter Finals Day, winning eight of the 20 premierships up for grabs across six sports.
Kepnock was second with five, with Bundaberg Christian College (BCC), Bundaberg State High (BSH) and North High picking up two each, and St Luke’s Anglican taking out a sole title.
Shalom flexed their muscle in netball, winning four of the eight divisions, Open Competitive, Year 9 Social, Year 9 Competitive and Year 7-8 Competitive, and finishing runner-up in three divisions.
Their other premierships were achieved in Year 9-10 Boys Basketball, Open Division 1 Table Tennis, and Years 9-10 Boys and Years 7-8 Boys Football.
Kepnock triumphed in Open Boys Basketball, Ten Pin Scratch, Open Social and Year 7-8 Social Netball, and Open Boys Football.
BCC were victorious in Year 9-10 Girls and Year 7-8 Boys Basketball, while BSH won the Open Mixed Hockey and Open Division 2 Table Tennis, North beat all comers in Year 10 Social Netball and Open Girls Football, and St Luke’s did best in Year 10 Competitive Netball.
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