Queensland All Schools Athletics Championships – 2022

The Somerset Spartans had an outstanding Queensland Schools Athletics Championships recently at the Queensland State Athletics Centre in Brisbane. With more than a dozen students representing Somerset College we had many excellent results overall.

Leading the way was our School Athletics Captain, Lucy Twigg (Year 12) who won her first ever State Title in the 18yrs girls 100m (12.12sec) and then followed it up the next day with another win in the 200m (24.53sec PB). After many years of striving to achieve this goal Lucy ran beautifully to take the sprint double and was also a member of the silver medal winning 4x100m Relay team. Her runs were a wonderful way to finish her school athletics career, whilst juggling the demands of her Year 12 academic studies in her final year at Somerset College. Lucy has been commended for her hard work, discipline and commitment being nothing short of excellent. It will be exciting to see Lucy realise her talent through to the Senior ranks, as she continues her studies at university while striving for Australian representation in the coming years.

Marie Warneke (Year 11) was also outstanding winning the very difficult double of the 400m (55.72sec) and 800m (2.10min) in the 17yrs girls’ events. Marie commenced at Somerset College at the start of the year, relocating from Ballina to pursue her athletics talent and studies. Coaching her this year has been a pleasure and I look forward to assisting her to one day represent Australia and see how fast this super talent can go over 800m.

Kassia Brown (Year 8) performed to her usual high standard and won the 13yrs girls Pole Vault (3.15m) with a very close attempt at 3.60m plus. Kassia has worked very closely with our Somerset Coach Howard Arbuthnot for several years now and the results are really showing. Kassia also qualified through to the 90m Hurdles final after running a great PB in her heat.

Cru Scott (Year 9) successfully won the 15yrs boys 1500m (4.02min) and won silver in the 800m (1.58min). Winning the 1500m was an outstanding achievement for Cru and well deserved after several years of minor placings. He also qualified for the Australian All Schools in December.

Aspen Anderson (Year 10) competed extremely well in the 800m and 1500m 16yrs girls winning silver medals in both events also qualifying for the Australian All Schools Championships in December. Aspen continues to juggle triathlon with her track running and has been extremely successful at both disciplines.

Kenny Ming (Year 10) made his first ever Schools Track State Championship placing an excellent 8th place in the final of the 16yrs boys 800m. Kenny also competed in the 1500m and just missed the final in a gutsy run. Kenny has made vast improvement over the last couple of years and now has his sights on competing at the elite level in the coming years.

Ava Stephens (Year 10) competed in the 16yrs girls 90m Hurdles, 200m and Long Jump. Ava finished 5th in the Hurdles final in (13.80sec PB); 5th in the Final of the 200m (26.2sec PB) and 5th in the Long Jump final. Ava is a very talented multi event athlete, and we are working closely with her towards the Queensland Multi Event Championships in December and the hopefully onto the Australian Championships in February. Her improvement over the past couple of years has been amazing.

Starr Scott was another Year 12 student competing. Starr performed to her usual high standard making the finals of both the 800m and 1500m. Tim Hornsey performed in his first ever State final in the 1500m as did youngster Zac Moir.

Multi event athletes Aidan Mackie 4th in the boys 16yrs 100m hurdles (14.18sec), 10th in the Triple Jump and Rhea Dawson 7th in the 16yrs girls Javelin and 12th in the Discus also performed very well. Willow Truscott competed in her first ever State Final event in the 10yrs girls High Jump and gained some valuable experience of major competitions for the future. Willow is one of the most dedicated athletes in the school and has a very bright future in the sport of athletics.

Many of these athletes have the potential to become international level athletes and it has been a pleasure to work with them over the past three years here at Somerset College. As the Head Coach of Athletics, I have enjoyed watching so many youngsters develop towards their future potential however with the announcement of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games and my growing time coaching multiple international level athletes, I have made the difficult decision to direct my attention into more of the elite and development athletes on the road to 2032 and will be moving on from Somerset College at the end of the year.

This will allow me to pursue my ultimate passion of High-Performance Coaching and I am looking forward to becoming the best coach I can be at this level. I will continue to coach development squads at Somerset College as an Ignition Athletics Club Coach so will still be around if you ever need athletic advice or coaching. I would like to thank everyone at Somerset College who has assisted me with the Athletics programme and hope that it can continue to evolve in the direction it needs to in the future.  

All the best for the future.