Our MSA Past and Present students have been hard at it over the summer months with some amazing results across all sports. Here are some of their efforts.
Cycling
Congratulations to MSA Alumni Lucas Plapp on winning his 2nd consecutive National road title after powering clear of his rivals in a thrilling contest in Ballarat. Lucas seemed to be struggling midway through the race but found his second wind to power home past Simon Clarke and Michael Matthews. The win means Lucas becomes only the second rider to win consecutive National Titles in the Road Race.
Lucas now heads back to Europe to prepare for a big season ahead with his professional team Ineos Grenadiers.
Football/Soccer
In matches over the weekend here are how our A-league Men and women went.
Rhys Bozinovski came on for Western United in the 79th min to help his team take a 2 all draw against Macarthur.
Matty Bozinovski started for the Melbourne Victory who lost 2-1 to Sydney United.
Naomi Thomas Chinnama helped Melbourne City take a 1-0 win over Adelaide United.
Aimee Medwin started in Western United’s 5-0 defeat of Canberra.
Polly Doran’s Crystal Palace was knocked out of the 4th round of the FA Women’s Cup in a 3-0 loss to Durham.
Connor Metcalfe started for FC St Pauli in their 1-0 win over Nurnberg. Connor was subbed off at the 59 minute.
Also congratulations to current Year 9 Student athlete Olivia Nicolazzo who was identified as one of the best performers at the Futsal Nationals over the summer.
Athletics
Celeste Mucci ran a 12.90 (Wind Assisted) 100m in her first race of the year in Canberra winning the ACT Open Championship. It was Celeste’s first time under 13 seconds.
Volleyball
Luella Greer and her doubles partner came 3rd in U23 National Beach Volleyball competition over summer in Newcastle which is amazing off the back of a very difficult 2022. She has just returned from the AIS where she took part in a beach volleyball training camp and tournament.
Para Table Tennis
MSA Alumni Nathan Pellissier has been named a co-captain of the National Para Squad for a third year in 2023.
Nathan will Co-Captain with Lina Lei for the next 12 months using their wealth of experience to lead the Australian National Para Team. 2023 is set to be another big year for Nathan with 2023 being the qualification year for the 2024 Paralympic Games
Nathan telling tabletennis.org.au that he is proud to be named a leader of his country’s team again. “I’m really looking forward to leading this team alongside Lina again in 2023,” he said.
“We have built a really strong foundation leading into this year, so it’s really exciting to see what the team can achieve”
Tennis
Bridget Mihulka played in the Australian Open junior qualifying event held in Traralgon. Bridget lost to her Chinese opponent in 3 sets. Bridget has a WTO ranking which reached 930 a couple of weeks ago.
Meanwhile Diordan Macababbad showed tremendous resilience to play though a tournament in New Zealand with a fractured foot. While he didn’t win the tournament he has now improved his ITF world ranking to 670 in the world.
Cricket
Former MSA Cricket athlete Farzan Chowna averaged 53.5 during the U19 National Cricket tournament hitting a top score of 111 against Queensland Country.
Victorian state player Fergus O’Neill has taken 10 wickets for the Bushrangers in his debut year, playing 6 Sheffield Shield matches so far this summer, while current year 11 student Bailey Toseland bowled well at the U17 National tournament. Former Maribyrnong College student Tom Rodgers had a solid season for the Melbourne Stars in BBL 12.