Senior State Champs Wrap-Up

Day 2 and 3 of Senior State Champs were held down at South Port over the weekend.
We had a huge 2 days of competition that sees Semaphore sitting 9th (provisionally) on the points table with R&R Champs still to come.

We had some great results including 6 medals:
* U17 Male Surf Team – Nic Schulz, Danny Humphrey, Cooper Lienert and Sam Squeo – SILVER
* U19 Male Surf Team – Luke Zille, Kyle Thomas, Nic Schulz and Danny Humphrey – SILVER
* U17 Male Ski Relay – Nic Schulz, Danny Humphrey and Sam Squeo – BRONZE
* U14 Male Swim – Connor Tunbridge – BRONZE
* Open Male Board – Sean McKenzie – BRONZE
* Over 24 Male Restricted Surf Race – Sean McKenzie – SILVER

As well as this we had over 15 top 6 finishes all of which earnt the club valuable points.

A big shout out to those that came down to predominantly compete to help fill teams and/or to handle for events such as the belt races – without this support some events would not have been entered; Laurence Fletcher, Nick Penny, Rhys Krauter, Luke Zille, Shannon Harris, Trent Bampton, Michael Williams.

The Seniors are not a large group of competitors with the girls a very small number within this. All of these girls deserve individual accolades for their determination, commitment and dedication to the club:
– Zoe Schulz – the only U15 female who attends the majority of training sessions and is gaining more and more confidence in competition.
– Bianca Williams – the only U17 female who competed in all of the water events in her age group and competed up in both individual and team Open events.
– Bryana Bisset – our U19 ski paddler who also competed in several team events to ensure these could go ahead.
– Shannon Harris – an U19 competitor who supported as handler for belt races and helped fill Open teams. When Shannon wasn’t competing she was a huge support in the managing of the competitors and could often be seen running down the beach carrying someone’s board to an event or holding everyone’s gear while they competed. It’s this behind the scenes support that is so essential to the whole team.
– Paige Purdie – our only Open female competitor. Paige gives just about every event a go and showed some awesome skills on her board this weekend.

Thanks to all of those other ‘behind the scenes’ people whose support is very much appreciated: Kerry Schulz for doing the nominations for the WHOLE competition group, Greg McKenzie and Craig Lienert for always being available to tow trailers to/from carnivals, all of our officials coordinated by Raelene Donnell (Semaphore always made their quota), our photographers – Ailsa Bisset, Vicki Harris and Richard Martin, Pat Larven for supporting wherever he was needed, Daryle Rigney (supported by Bruce Moseley) for being the U14/15s Team Manager, Trent Bampton for being our swim coach and Sean McKenzie for coaching skis, boards and the U14s and being a mentor to all of the older juniors and our senior group.

Well done to Zac Buck and Lindsey Ould who were named Semaphore’s U14 Lifesavers of the Year – well deserved amongst some very tough competition!
Our U14 group as a whole need to be congratulated. This season saw a big change with them only able to compete at Senior carnivals – definitely a tough ask! There is no doubt that our crew stepped up and didn’t let this deter them – something to be very proud of.

With a big number of juniors heading into seniors in the next few years (a few can be seen in the photo below) we are sure our senior competition group is only going to go from strength to strength.

Now – AUSSIES!!!! With only a little over 3 weeks to go until we head to the Sunshine Coast there is no time for rest.
Training is still going – keep an eye on the Facebook pages for days/times. Please remember this training is for anyone that wants to keep working on their fitness and skills not just those competing in QLD.

Thanks for a great 2015/16 season!!