Once again our MSA Student Athletes have put up an amazing performance against America’s best Track and Field high school students to leave the 2020 Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho with their heads held high.
Year 12 student Aliyah Canepa finished third in the Girls weight throw event with a best throw of 15.66m. While this was 2.3m off the eventual winner. This was the first time Aliyah has competed in this event and the first time at an indoor meet.
Year 10 student Frank Mazza did an amazing job in the field events of High Jump and Long Jump. Frank finished fifth in the Long Jump final while three of the four boys above him were seniors. He also made the final of the Boys High jump, finishing equal 11th.
Copper Cavallo finished 10th in the Boys Long Jump with a best jump of 12 meters 90.
Meanwhile, Copper and Frank ran in the heats of the 60m dash against much older students. While both missed out on the finals they tried their best on their first run on the wooden indoor track at Holt Stadium.
Year 10 Student/Athlete Lachie Attard ran an amazing race in the Boys 1600m prelims. Running in Heat 8 of 19 Lachie set a time of 4.42 to win his heat by 50m. Unfortunately for Lachie though his time wasn’t quick enough to get him into the finals which will feature a lot of year 11 and 12’s.
Amiee Jungfer started off strong in her heat of the 1600m for girls, but found the pace a bit too hot in the end still finishing with a time that had her in the top 30% of runners on the day.
A spectacular run by Abigail Thomas in the girls 800m saw her finish 7th in the final.
Team captain Eliza Connors ran a lovely race in the girls 400m, but her time of 1.02.52 had her miss the finals of the sprint race by just six one hundredths of a second. And with only the top 18 runners going through to the final of the boys 400m, Jai Lever’s time of 54.44 had him miss the finals by just .9 of a second.
Our boys also competed in the 1600m Sprint medley which consists of 2 runners running 200m each with a third runner running 400m while the final runner runs an 800m finish. After finishing 8th in the preliminary times and making the A final the boys improved to 7th in the final.
So once we thank Simplot Australia, Oliver Wight, Linfox and Orora Packaging, our sponsors, who have made this possible for our students. We also thank our staff members Amy Holmes and Martin Cusack for the work they have done to keep the students focused and coach Brent Vallance for his leadership and guidance.