Illawarra Sports High flying the flag in many events
September 19, 2007
Section: Sport
Jenny Milligan
BERKELEY-BASED Illawarra Sports High (ISH) is producing winners in a number of fields.
The school's open rugby union team is off to Bathurst to defend the NSW Country Yates Shield next month.
In 2006, the Illawarra boys ground out a hard-fought win against Singleton High School.
This year they will play Hunter Valley Grammar School, who won their place in the final via a 41-5 result over Grafton High.
The trail to this year's final game for Illawarra saw them defeat Moss Vale, Holy Spirit College and Nowra and then travel to Orange to score a 40 -15 win over James Sheean Catholic College from Orange.
The Yeates Shield is one of three competitions run for NSW Country Schools and attracts numerous entries from all over the State.
Meanwhile, ISH students cleaned up at the NSW CHS athletics titles at Homebush.
Middle-distance runner Ryan Gregson won triple gold at the tittles by convincingly winning the 3km, 1500m and 800m.
He smashed long-standing records in the 3km and 800m and won an award for best performance by a 1500m runner at the titles.
Shane Chapman's gold in the 400m Hurdles and bronze in the 400m were also outstanding performances.
Others worthy of mention are: 16 year old Joel Skeates who had a top 10 finish in the Open Pentathalon and the15 years girls relay team of Emma Kelly, Vanessa Krstevski, Elizabeth Borg and Ashleigh Clayton who came fifth.
A number of athletes made the finals following the lead of athletics coach Maree Kay, who recently took gold at the World Veterans Games in Italy.
The boys under 15s soccer team, did one better in 2007, finishing third in the Bill Turner Cup at Newcastle recently.
In 2006 ISH snared fourth in the tournament, which had more than 900 entries from the East coast.
In the preliminary final with the score at nil-all and only two minutes remaining, Westfields Sports scored the goal that bundled ISH out of the tournament.
Regardless of this disappointment, the boys played with purpose and discipline to bring home the bronze.