St Joseph's Nudgee College

February 4, 2009

St Joseph's Nudgee College Director of Rowing Mark Partridge reports on Nudgee College's successful start to the GPS Regatta season.

The GPS Regatta season kicked off in earnest at Stockland Park Kawana last Saturday, January 31, with Nudgee College hosting the first of seven regattas that will culminate in the Head of The River on March 14th.

Hosting a regatta is never a simple affair and being first up is always hard due to the close proximity of the summer holidays and the organisation required to run it efficiently.

The Nudgee College Rowing Parents Support Group is to be commended for putting in such a mammoth effort to ensure that areas such as catering and parking were well covered. There was no shortage of volunteers who ensured things ran smoothly and the College received many plaudits for the day.

On the rowing side, Nudgee College once again came up with a strong performance across the Shed. Wins came from the 1st VIII, 2nd VIII, Year 10 3rd Quad and Year 10 10th Quad, whilst the Year 10 1st, 2nd and 4th Quads all came second in their races.

As there was no room on the race schedule for the Year 9 crews, Nudgee College entered all of the Year 9 Quads into the Year 10 schedule to give them an opportunity to race in their first GPS event.

Giving a year away, all of the crews raced well and will be able to use this experience when they line up next Saturday against their Year 9 competitors from the other six rowing, GPS schools.

Overall, Nudgee College has become a force to be reckoned with in the GPS system and will only improve over the coming weeks as teams continue their preparations for both the Junior and Senior Head of the Rivers.

My congratulations go to all of the rowers for representing the College so well on the weekend. I would also like to extend my thanks, on behalf of the Shed, to all of the parents who gave their valuable time to ensure that a successful day was enjoyed by all.

Winning teams from the Regatta were:

Open 1st VIII - Theo Cox, Richard White, Luke Lawn, Chris Hislop, Ed Hibberd, Levi Power, Ted Postal, Tom Amies, cox George Withey

Open 2nd VIII - George Moloney, John Morrisey, Darcy Egan, Matt Kelly, Douglas Taylor, Jack Chiarabaglio, Zac Frank, Tom Rollinson, cox Nic Redcliffe

Year 10 3rd Quad - Grant Hayes, Harry Lincoln, Sam O’Reilly, cox Liam Murie

Year 10 10th Quad - William Gooch, Harrison Gill, Hamish Dunleavy, Nick Tippelt, cox Zac Sharman (All Year 9)