UNI V ARMY GAMES 2018
After some hard fought out games against the North Queensland Army, James Cook University has come out on top of the "Battle of the Icons" series for 2018!
Friday 12th October, saw the University and the North QLD Army play it out at Men's Basketball, Women's Netball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Mixed Touch football and Men's Rugby and Women's rugby 7's in one huge day of sport.
The Basketball and Netball games were absolute nail biters with the teams being within 1 point of each other for the majority of the second half of both games. JCU eventually clawed their way to the top winning the Basketball 48-47 and the Netball 30-27 at the Townsville Stadium. JCU team members, Taylor Crossley and Jeremy Myles were both named match MVP for Netball and basketball matches, which sweetened the wins just that little bit more.
Soccer was played at the JCU Joe Baker field for the first time in history of the games, but the home ground advantage did not pay off for our JCU teams. The Men's and Women's sides, unfortunately, both went down to the Army 1-0 and 2-0 respectively. The games were great to watch and both teams must be commended for their efforts playing at the hottest part of the day and at such a high standard.
For the First time, Mixed Touch football was contested in the Battle of the Icons series. We were a bit unsure of the competition to start with, but both the University and the army teams played out of their skins in a very fast game of Touch! After showing some very impressive speed and athleticism, JCU came out on top with a score of 7-5 and a JCU player being awarded the Game MVP, Conor Wilson.
The original games of the tournament kicked off with the Commander's Cup, Women's Rugby 7's match, and what a match it was! Off the back of a bronze medal at Division 1 Uni nationals at the Gold Coast in September, the JCU Women's Rugby 7's team was in top form and absolutely crushed the North QLD Army team with a very impressive scoreline of 36-5. Aimee Jones from JCU was awarded the MVP for the game after a very dominating performance.
The culminating event of the series was the hotly contested Chancellor's Cup Men's rugby Union game. The heavily stacked JCU team was never short of passion and grit, but unfortunately JCU missed out on the top spot being beaten by the North QLD Army team with a scoreline of 36-19.
A huge thank you must go out to all of the team managers and coaches that pulled the teams together and made JCU the victors of the tournament for 2018. We also must recognise the hard work of the JCUSA Sport team and the JCU Rugby Union Club who did a great job catering for the approximately 600 spectators who were present on the day! Also a big congratulations to Ben Rennie photography for the amazing photos!! Ben is a JCU Student and also doubles as a lifeguard at the JCU pool.
The event is proving to be an annual show of astounding talent from the JCU and the North Queensland army teams who ooze pride for their organisations, and we are hoping for an even bigger and better event in 2019! It was great having both the Chancellor of JCU, Mr Bill Tweddell and the Commander of the 3rd Brigade, Brigadier Scott Winter in attendance throughout the games and having them both so actively involved in the games. We hope to continue to grow the relationship between the University and the Army populations through sport with the aid and strong leadership of Mr Tweddell and Brigadier Winter.
JCU, If you want to see your huge haul of trophies, they will be on display at JCUSA Fitness Centre reception!
JCUSA Sport are looking forward to bringing you an even bigger and better event in 2019, and hopefully take back even more trophies from the Army.
