JCU had a successful UniSport Nationals Div 1 competition as they came away with a Silver and a Bronze in the event. From 24-28 of September JCU sent over 40 students to compete across 5 different sports. Here is how we went:
Rugby 7s
It was a fantastic week for our women's rugby 7s side as they came away with a bronze medal. Our girls finished second in their group to take on QUT in the quarter finals where they defeated them 24-15. JCU in the Semi-Finals clash against CSU were unable to come away with the victory going down 24-7 which set up a Bronze Medal clash with UTS.
On the last play of the game, JCU were trailing 15-10 until Aimee Jones broke through 2-3 defenders to score underneath the posts and kicked the winning field goal to win the Bronze Medal for JCU.
Meanwhile in the men's competition, the JCU side started the competition slowly as they lost their first four games however they did not embarrassed themselves as they were either drawing or leading at halftime in three of those games. However the guys were able to finish the competition strong as they won their last 3 games including a thrilling victory over the Australian Defence Force Academy to finish 5th.
Rowing
This years rowing team was much larger as we had 9 students competing across 6 events. This included competing in the men's eight competition for the very first time.
In the end, JCU made the final for three rowing events including the men's single scull, the men's pair and the men's cox four. JCU was able to come away with a silver medal in the men's single scull thanks to our elite athlete Sasha Belonogoff. This is his third medal he has picked up for JCU in the last two years.
Beach Volleyball
JCU's mixed fours side went on to have a very good competition. The team did start off slow losing their first two games however they came home strong winning their last three games to finish second in their group. They came up against SCU in the quarter finals in what turned out to be a great clash. Unfortunately, JCU went down 2 sets to 1 eliminating them from the competition. JCU went on to finish in a respectful 8th position.
Athletics
This years athletics size was quite small however they were keen to compete in any event. With a team of 5 students, JCU competed in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 4x100m relay and the medley relay. Althought JCU did not win a medal, we did however make the final in three events, Jade Bidgood finished 7th in the 1500m, our medley relay side finished 7th in the final and our 4x100m relay side finished in 8th. Great results for a very small but keen athletics side.
Swimming
For the first time since 2015, JCU sent a swimmer in Zac Chrzanowski. Zac competed across 5 swimming events including the 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, 50m butterfly and the 100m butterfly events.
Zac just missed out on making the finals for three of the events however he did make the final of the 100m backstroke and the 100m & 200m backstroke events where in finished 8th in both events.
Big congratulations to all of our students who competed.
For all the results, click on the following:
Rugby 7s & Beach Volleyball - HERE
Rowing - HERE
Athletics - HERE
Swimming - HERE