Home Hill State High School Inter-house Athletics Carnival events began with pre-run events during lunchtimes in the weeks leading into Spirit day last Thursday afternoon. Dressed in their house colours, students ran the 800 metres, followed by mixed age spirit events of ball games involving the entire school.
With the addition of house themes and water balloon elements in Spirit Events on the final day of the carnival last Friday, it was a popular way to end the term. A high standard of performance was also evident in the traditional athletics disciplines with Upstart House winning the carnival convincingly, followed by Beachmount and Inkerman house.
House Captains for Upstart, Zoe Branch and Liam Todeschino, proudly accepted the trophy on behalf of their house and received the Lloyd Mann Memorial Athlete of the Year trophies and Open Age Champion medals for their individual performances.
Records were broken by Luke Potter-Geitz (along with Luke Blacklock, 2nd) in the 800m, with Potter-Geitz also setting the new height for High Jump, and equalling the 100m record for the 12 years boys. Alana Dobe also broke a 32 year old record in the 16 years girls High Jump.
AGE CHAMPIONS:
Girls 12 years Annabelle Bartonietz
Boys 12 years Luke Potter-Geitz
Girls 13 years Isla Wilkie
Boys 13 years Rowen Petersen
Girls 14 years Isabell Arthur
Boys 14 years Jack Power
Girls 15 years Grace Ogomeni
Boys 15 years Dean Kaminski
Girls 16 years Jasmine Styles
Boys 16 years Maliq Ogomeni
Girls 17+ years Zoe Branch
Boys 17+ years Liam Todeschino
Dedicated athletics training and coaching opportunities were provided by staff and through visits by Mr Glen Cornford, of Positive Performance, during HPE lessons, lunch sessions, and the school's Sports' Excellence Program.
Appreciation was extended to the staff, students and all other volunteers, for their organisation and running of the events. With beaming smiles on their faces, participants demonstrated house spirit, leadership, teamwork, determination and athleticism, ensuring the efforts of all involved in arranging the carnival, were extremely worthwhile.
Newly constructed, shaded seating, provided by the government to replace the condemned grandstand, was also trialled for the very first time with plans to use generous donations from the community to further improve the Home Hill State High School sporting precinct.