St Kevin's Amateur Athletic Club
All at SKAAC are delighted to hear that Luke Mathews has run a qualifying time for the 1,500m for the London World Championships in August. Luke stopped the clock in 3:35.60, which was a PB for Luke and a new SKAAC Open Club Record.
We all wish Luke the best for the remaining lead-up races as he orients himself towards the World Champs.
Well done Luke !!
The GSV Cross Country Championship Carnival (held 2 June 2017) is a massive undertaking with 24 schools across 3 divisions (A, B & C) and 3 age groups Junior (Years 7 & 8), Intermediate (Years 9 & 10) and Senior (Years 11 & 12) competing for GSV Premierships. There were an amazing 1,044 GSV athletes that faced the starter today, 4 of whom are SKAAC members that coincidently formed our first ever Women’s relay team last season in the Under 18 4x800m Relay.
In the Intermediate A race (4km) the following sensational results were achieved:-
7th Isabelle Collins 14:27.4
22nd Ellie Ansett 15:15.3
43rd Ava Bennett 15:48.7
In the Senior A race (4km) Eleanor Brown ran 16:04.4 over 4km to place 40th
Well done to all 4 athletes on their sensational results.
On behalf of the SKAAC Committee we congratulate long time club member Ned O’Brien on being announced as 2017 Cross Country Captain at St. Kevin’s College. Ned has been a mainstay of our club for many years having started with us during his time at Glendalough in season 2011/2012.
Ned has been a trailblazer in so many ways being the first SKC primary student to join the senior boys for training, and in doing so, re-defining the way that development of young SKC athletes takes place.
Ned has been a SKAAC Club Champion at both Under 13 & 14 level in 2011/2012 and again was duly awarded the Under 14 Track & Field Champion in 2012/2013.
The current SKC Cross Country Year 12’s are a special group with so many passionate not only about their running but also the famous green, gold & blue colours, that no-one would be at all surprised so see quite a few of the current surnames representing SKAAC for many years to come.
Ned, all the best for the remaining APS Cross Country season. You are a fantastic member of our club and long may you continue to be.
Luke Mathews has smashed his own mile club record in running 3:54.53 to be 6th fastest in the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon USA on Saturday 27th May USA time. The performance has also shaken up the Australian All-time rankings catapulting, Luke to 8th fastest Australian ever. The run hopefully is a springboard into the qualification races coming up on Luke’s road to the London World Championships.
To think that less than 12 months ago, no-one in 72 years had broken 4 minutes for the mile, now the club record stands at 3:54.53!!
All records & ranking have been updated to reflect this huge effort.
Well done Luke
A big welcome to Tristan Mioni who has agreed to join the SKAAC Committee effective immediately to further sharpen the SKAAC focus on our winter cross country and distance running development. Please join me in congratulating Tristan and thanking him in advance for the contribution he will make to our club.
Please see below for a photo to outline the lengths Tristan will go to for SKAAC.
22 years is a long time.
SKAAC’s last win in this most prestigious of APSOC races was in 1995, when many of the clubs legends (and some current coaches) were strutting their stuff on the National & International stage.
So it was appropriate for Justin Rinaldi and his very talented group to create their own slice of SKAAC APSOC history in a commanding win in the Dyson Relay around the Kings Domain on 20 May 2017.
To have 9 of the top 20 runners also underlined what a great day it was for SKAAC.
Also, there was plenty to be excited about with the composition of our two teams. With club stalwarts Xavier Chapman, Mark Deluca & Anthony Aloisio (all former APSOC Champion Athletes of the Year) marking their returns to APSOC racing, and Joseph Deng VERY impressive running 11:40 in his SKAAC debut.
A BIG congratulations to Trish Doble for winning the Women’s 50+ division with her 16:34 effort!!
Also a great effort of team management by Mark Moussalli juggling the teams with aplomb.
All 6 members of the Div 1 team ran under 12 minutes:
Peter Bol 11:24
Alex Rowe 11:30
Jack Holden 11:56
Brad Mathas 11:34
Anthony Aloisio 11:59
Mark Deluca 11:40
For a team time of 70:03, nearly 3 minutes in front of a strong Old Xaverians team.
Scarcely less impressive was the SKAAC #2 team winning Div 2 by nearly 2 minutes. The first 3 runners of this team were in second place overall for half the race!!
Joseph Deng 11:40
Xavier Chapman 12:08
Tristan Mioni 12:36 (equal PB)
Joe Lynch 14:50
Stuart Pettigrew 19:58
Sam Doble 15:14
The SKAAC Div 1 Women’s team finished in 5th place
Karen Thorpe 15:33
Olivia Mitchell 18:09
Chloe Cornwell 17:37
Emily Wallace 17:24
Also great runs by John Cornwell 15:44m, which was a PB, and Stephanie Greenslade battling cramps to run 19:21
With all the ability and results on the board to indicate he should be receiving some central funding, Adam Pyke sadly has to do it the hard way.
In the next few months, Adam has a series of races in Europe before representing Australia at the World University Games in Taiwan over 1500m.
Adam leaves for Europe on June 2nd, going via Leonora. His first confirmed race will be in Leiden, NED on the 17th June. His other races haven’t been confirmed yet but SKAAC will be sure to let everyone know the series of races once they are 100% confirmed.
Adam’s expenses for the next three months are as follows:
European Racing Campaign: Approx. $14000
Uni Games Team Levy: $4000
This is now our chance to support Adam to pay his own way to represent himself, his family, his country and our great club in some of the big European races and then in the Green & Gold at the Uni Games.
Adam has set up a funding mechanism (via the Australian Sports Foundation) that allows every dollar that you pledge to be treated as personally tax deductible to you the donor.
Please take the time to assist a fellow SKAAC’er get on the world stage to strut his stuff.
Please use the link below to make a donation, however large or small, every cent counts.
www.asf.org.au/athletes/adam-pyke/
All at SKAAC wish Adam all the best for this fundraising campaign and also for his European racing season.
A wonderful facility awaits us in early July (weather permitting) for the SKAAC family when Tooronga will be officially opened.
As can be seen in the photo taken 4/5/17, 80m of the main straight has been laid and the bend is becoming “blue” very quickly. The track will be IAAF certified and allow us to hold official sprint & field competitions.
It will be a secure facility with two magnificent pavilions, complimented with a long/triple pit, high jump fan and a shot put sector.
Up, up and away!!
On behalf of the SKAAC Committee we congratulate Callum Day on being announced as 2017 Cross Country Captain at Trinity Grammar. Callum is a budding star of the sport, having only until recently juggled representative basketball with his running.
After a super win by the Trinity Under 20 team (nearly 90 seconds in front of the 2nd placed Marcellin Team) at the All Schools Cross Country Championships at Jells Park on the weekend, it is clear that his leadership is already having a huge impact. This was a team that also contained Callum’s younger sibling, Tristan, fresh off his national 3,000m Bronze medal. What a delight to see two brother atop the podium from the same race!
Callum, all the best for the remaining Cross Country Championships and the AGSV season.
And also a big well done to Callum & Tristan’s coach, Steve Cain, who has done a magnificent job over the last 2 seasons with both lads.
Plenty of SKAAC & past SKC students in action in Stawell over the Easter weekend.
Congratulations to Jack Anderson (SKC Captain of Athletics in 2015) who won the backmarkers 400m to earn his first Stawell sash off 26m if 45.58. Interesting to note that the runner up, Paul Tancredi is also a SKC Old Collegian.
Also fantastic to see Michael Romanin make the Gift Final, finishing 5th in 12.41 off 4.75m (which was televised on National television) after a slashing Semi win in 12.21. Didn’t know that we was so into souvlaki’s – but Peter Donaghan and Jason Richardson sure let us know about this little “not so” secret 🙂
Joel Bee, who has had a fantastic pro season ran in Backmarkers invitational finishing 7th in 12.89.
Shaun Hargreaves won his heat in the Jack Donaldson 200m and narrowly missed out in making the final after a very close semi.
Alex Rowe, off scratch in the Hedeman Invitational mile ran 4:06 to be right in the mix finishing in 7th place – and probably one of his best runs given he went around nearly the whole field!!
Jeremy Weeks was also in action in the Mile (14th in Backmarkers 4:10.68) & 800 (3rd in his Heat in 1:54.58) as was Jack Anderson’s brother Sam in the Restricted mile, finishing 4th in 4:14.9 and also 15th in the Backmarkers Mile in 4:11.59