Badminton - Oceania Championships

MSA past and present students have performed well at the Oceania Junior and Open Badminton championships last week held in Auckland.

Current Year 10 student Shrey Dhand brings home 4 medals from the Junior Championships:

·      Gold Medal in the Teams Event

·      Bronze in the Boys Singles

·      Bronze in the Boys Doubles

·      Bronze in the Mixed Doubles

Past Students and Olympians Jacob Schueler and Gronya Somerville also leave the Open tournament with medals.

·      Jacob won a Bronze medal in the men’s Singles

·      Gronya won a Bronze in the Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles.

Congratulations to all our past and present students who competed in the event.

Simplot Games Results

Once again, our Maribyrnong Sports Academy students have done us proud, competing at the 43rd Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho, USA.

With a delayed start to the trip due to a plane cancellation, our team travelled 30 hours straight via San Francisco and Salt Lake City to get to Idaho. Once there the team settled down for a nice long sleep in sub zero temperatures to prepare for 3 days of Indoor competition at the Idaho State Universities, Holt Arena.

First day qualifiers went well, with Emily Mifsud qualifying for the 3200 final finishing 3rd in her heat with the 6th fastest overall time in the qualifiers.  Mackenzie Leith finished 2nd in his heat of the 60-meter dash and posted the 18th fastest time of the qualifiers to take the last spot into the finals.  Unfortunately, Max Busuttil and Arden Steven missed out on finals qualification.

Day 2 started with qualification for the boys 4 x 200m relay.  Our MSA team finished second in their heat but missed out on making the final by just 0.69 of a second.  Sukhnoor Rangi then qualified for the Girls Pole Vault Final while Khushnoor Rungi was also qualifying for the final of the girls Triple Jump.  Lily-Bella Hilli won her qualifying heat of the girls 400m dash and posted the 10th fastest time. To round off the day Devesh Sri Deenathayalan and Arden Stevens also qualified for final day action in the boys Triple Jump.

Day 3 is finals day at the Simplot Games and what an effort by our Maribyrnong Sports Academy team.  Lily-Bella Hilli won her final of the 400m dash and finished 4th fastest time overall with a 59.11.  Emily Mifsud finished 4th in the 3200m Girl’s final with a time 11.21.02 which was 0.6 of a second from finishing in the top 3.  Sukhnoor Rangi finished 6th in the Girls Pole Vault with a jump of 3.58m while twin sister Khushnoor Rangi finished 5th in the Triple Jump with a jump of 10.99m.

Arden Steven finished 7th and Devesh Sri Deenathayalan finished 9th in the Boys Triple Jump and Mackenzie Leith finished 5th in his final with a time of 7.17 second only 14 hundredths of a sec off the winner.

While congratulating our athletes on their performances, Maribyrnong Sport Academy would like to also thank the effort of our staff and the amazing support of Simplot Australia in ensuring our students have the experience of a lifetime.

Simplot Games 2023

The first MSA Simplot games team to leave Melbourne in 3 years has headed off for Pocatello, Idaho today to compete in the 43rd Simplot Games at Idaho’s State University.

This will be the 7th time a Maribyrnong Sports Academy team has flown to the United States to compete in the Premier High School indoor track and field event in America.  The 3 days of competition start on Thursday the 16th till Saturday the 18th. 

This year MSA will be sending 8 Athlete’s to represent Australia at the meet, Let’s meet our 2023 Simplot Games athletes.

Lilly-Bella Hilli

Lilly-Bella is a year 10 student Athlete who is the 2022 National 200m Hurdle Champion. She will be competing in the 400m at the Simplot Games.

Max Busuttil

Max is a year 11 student athlete who runs in the 100 and 200 meters.  He was a national champion back in 2018 over the 200m and has won multiple state titles.  Max will be competing in the 60m and 4 x 200m relay at the Simplot Games.

Mackenzie Leith

Mackenzie is a year 12 student athlete who is a discus thrower and multi eventer.  Mackenzie was a silver medallist at the 2022 national discuss championship.  He will be competing in the 60m sprint and the 4 x 200m relay at the Simplot Games.

Arden Stevens

Arden is a year 10 student athlete and is the current U16 State champion in the Triple Jump.  Arden will be competing in the Triple Jump and the 4 x 200m relay at the Simplot Games.

Devesh Sri Deenathayalan

Devesh is a year 12 student athlete who competes in the triple and long jump.  He was a medallist in the 2023 national triple jump competition and will be competing in 3 events at the Simplot Games, the Triple Jump, Long Jump and the 4 x 200m relay.

Khushnoor Rangi

Khushnoor is a year 10 student athlete who won the 2022 All Schools National championships and was a silver medallist in the Nationals in Pole Vault.  She will be competing in the Pole Vault and Triple jump at the Simplot Games.

Sukhnoor Rangi

Twin sister to Khushnoor, Sukhnoor also competes in the Pole Vault having won the Silver medal behind her sister at the 2022 All Schools Championship while defeating her sister at the 2022 National Championships.  Sukhnoor will be competing in the Pole Vault at the 2023 Simplot Games.

Emily Mifsud

Emily is a year 12 student athlete who represented Victoria in the 2022 Australian Cross Country Championships.  Emily will be running in the 3200 at the Simplot Games.

The following staff are accompanying the Athletes to the States, Head Athletics coach Darren Clark, Track and Field coach Bill Georgantas, PE Teacher Marty Cusack and Pathways Manager Kate Green.

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