2018 Annual Rowing Dinner

The 2018 Rowing Dinner held earlier in the term was an opportunity to reflect on the past season and for the Year 12 rowers, a chance to reminisce on their past five years of Rowing for Somerset. It was also a time to recognise those who have shown great commitment and to celebrate the competitive successes through the awards presented to the students.

Rowing captains Katherine Plume and Blake Mills did an extraordinary job of emceeing the night. They reflected on many aspects of the season from training, to rowing camps, competition and the great team that they have been a part of in Somerset Rowing.

On behalf of the whole rowing programme, Katherine reflected on the support that the rowing parents offer to their children and especially her own parents Andrew and Lisa who have had at least one of their three children, Annabelle, Harrison and Katie continuously in the rowing program since 2009. Both Plume parents have been great supporters with Andrew being a committee member and President throughout that time. Three other Year 12 parents Carl Eksteen, Karen Neumann and Jens Muenster have taken on the role of president of the rowing committee over the past years and I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to the parents who have given so much to the programme.

2018 President, Jens Muenster gave a great speech about being a rowing parent, he also expressed that it was an absolute pleasure to be president as he had such an abundance of support from the rowing parents. Jade Mansell and Aidan McKeon presented the highly contentious Cupcake award, with Michelle Mansell being honoured as the 2018 winner. We were also privileged to have Somerset Alumni, Blair Carey at the dinner to award the Brian Carey Award, named after his later father. The award recognises a parent who has gone above and beyond in the support of the programme and was presented to a very humble and surprised Michelle Smith.

Sam and Tom Liu shared their passion for rowing and their skill at movie making with a brilliant montage that captured the essence of the Somerset Rowing team and I would like to thank them for the work that they put in to the video.

On behalf of the students I was able to thank the coaches, Greg Juniper, Olivia Sina, Reuben Mansell, Nick Miller who have helped to develop the rowers over the 2018 season. The night was capped off with Mr Bassingthwaighte presenting the 2019 Rowing Captains, Declan Thew and Zara Smith, who I look forward to working with next year.

2018 Rowing Award Recipients

• Year 8 Boy’s - Most Competitive Rower – Callum McClure
• Year 8 Boy’s - Team Commitment Award – Raffi Anderson
• Year 9 Boy’s - Most Competitive Rower – Nicholas Tan
• Year 9 Boy’s - Team Commitment Award – Joshua Mills
• Year 10 Boy’s - Most Competitive Rower – Chester Whiting
• Year 10 Boy’s - Team Commitment Award – Thomas Liu
• Year 8 Girl’s - Most Competitive Rower – Jessica Velloza
• Year 8 Girl’s - Team Commitment Award – Katherine Jordan
• Year 9 Girl’s - Most Competitive Rower – Emma Wilson
• Year 9 Girl’s - Team Commitment Award – Miku Adachi
• Year 10 Girl’s – Most Competitive Rower – Jordan Wilson
• Year 10 Girl’s - Team Commitment Award – Nina Varcoe
• 2018 Coach’s Male Award – Blake Mills
• 2018 Coach’s Female Award – Katherine Plume
• 2018 Most Outstanding Competitor – Cian Muenster
• The Plume Family Trophy - Coxswain of the Year - 2018 – Austin Macrossan
• 2018 Brian Carey Memorial Award – Michelle Smith
• 2019 Rowing Captain – Zara Smith and Declan Thew