Representative rewards
May 20, 2011
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For several St Joseph’s Nudgee College students their efforts in the sporting arena have been rewarded with selection in representative teams.
Year 11 student Harrison Baker and Year 12 students Jared Gilliland and Buster Sykes have made representative teams in baseball and swimming respectively.
Harrison was rewarded for his “outstanding” performance at the Under 16 National Youth Baseball Championships when he was named as second baseman in the Australian All Star team.
“Harrison had an outstanding tournament playing every game, the only Queensland player to do so, at short stop or second base,” said his father Mark.
“He hit three home runs with a batting average of .263. In the field he had 41 chances with one error which is outstanding for a pivot in baseball,” he said.
Harrison also played in the State Open Schoolboys baseball tournament recently and made the Queensland Open Schoolboys team. He will travel to Cairns next week to compete. Fellow Year 11 Nudgee College student Sam Beattie made the team as a shadow player.
Rounding out a successful few weeks for him, Harrison has been offered and accepted a scholarship to the 2011 Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program. The scholarship means he has a chance to make the Australian AA baseball team to compete at the world championships to be held in Mexico.
Harrison comes from a family rich in baseballing talent. His eldest brother Trent was a pro baseballer signed with Cleveland Indians who now plays for the Brisbane Bandits in the ABL while James (NC 2006-10) has been of interest to pro scouts.
Also gaining Australian selection are Nudgee Brothers swimmers Jared Gilliland and Buster Sykes. Both have been selected in Australian Swimming teams after winning gold medals at the recent National Age Championships. Jared was selected in the Australian Age Team to compete in Canberra while Buster will travel to Lima as a World Youth Championship Team member.
“Nudgee Brothers Swimming managed to finish a spot higher than last year at the ultimate meet for the year, Age Nationals,” said Brothers and Nudgee College Head Coach Matt Brown.
“A second place finish behind a much larger team in Melbourne Vicentre, who had 43 swimmers to our 18 swimmers, was a great team effort.
“Nine of our swimmers won individual medals, with another three swimmers scoring relay medals. All but one of our swimmers made finals in their respective events, which means a Top 10 Australian Ranking for most of our swimmers – a fantastic result,” he said.
Nudgee College students who won individual medals at the championship were Buster (gold, silver and bronze), Jared (gold and bronze), Zac Whenuroa (silver and two bronze), Jack McLoughlin (bronze), and Josh Zuill (silver and bronze).
