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Our past students continue to shine here at home and right around the world.  Here are some of their efforts in the past week.

Athletics

Celeste Mucci has started off her 2023 Athletics season in fine form with an amazing hurdle run in the USA.  Running in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, Celeste became the second fastest Australian woman in History over the 60m Hurdles clocking a 7.95 passing rival Michelle Jenneke who had set the second fastest time only hours earlier in Poland with a 7.98.  Sally Pearson holds the fastest time with a 7.73

A-League Men

Rhys Bozinovski come on for Western United in the 65’ in their 1-0 loss to West Sydney Wanderers. 

Matty Bozinovski started for the Melbourne Victory in their 3-1 victory over Wellington Phoenix.

A-League Women

Aimee Medwin started in the Western United loss to Perth Glory 3-1.

MelindaJ Barbieri come on for Adelaide United in the 90’ in their 1-0 loss to Brisbane Roar.

International Football

Connor Metcalfe scored in the 27’ to help his Bundesliga 2 team FC St Pauli to a 2-0 win on Hannover. Fc St Pauli are currently sitting mid table in 9th place.

Gridiron

Adam Korsak has been ranked the number 1 punting prospect in this year’s NFL draft by a high number of American Sports writers.  After an impressive display at the 2023 Senior Bowl, Adam is now heading to the NFL draft combine where he will get another opportunity to put his case forward to be selected by an NFL team.

Volleyball

Former MSA Volleyballer Lorenzo Pope’s professional team Modena is currently sitting 3rd on the table in the Italy SupaLega with 4 games to go in the season. 

AFL

Congratulations to Harry Birch who has been offered an AFL contract as a field umpire at the Elite level.

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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.

Don Deeble Sports Star Award

The Sunshine and Western Region Sports Club presented their Don Deeble Sports Star Award during the Holidays, and once again MSA Students rose to the top

This night is a celebration of the Don Deeble Rising Star Award (monthly) recipients as they are acknowledged for their outstanding sporting performances throughout 2022.

Eight MSA student-athletes were finalists, and our congratulations to Louise Baliton (Golf) who was announced as the 2022 Don Deeble Rising Sports Star.  

The following MSA student-athletes also received awards:

Don Deeble Encouragement Awards:

Charlotte Baskaran (AFL)

Jayden Kim (Baseball)

Om Neelam (Badminton)

Louise received $5,000 for being named the winner for the 2022 award, after being selected from the 10 monthly nominees.

Baliton telling Star Weekly that winning the overall award had come as a big shock.

“It’s very exciting,” she said “I’m shocked honestly.

“It’s just a big opportunity for me and I’m so grateful for all the support that I’ve gotten from friends and family, especially from everyone that is involved from this Don Deeble award.”

Louise said when she was first nominated it was exciting, as it was another opportunity to get her foot in the door and get her name out there.