By LIAM TWOMEY
MARIBYRNONG College continues to produce young stars.
At the recent All Schools Cross-country Championships, eight athletes, Ryhan Thomas, Thomas Butler, Kirk Shanahan, Cody Shanahan, Jennifer Mendes, Amelia Mazza-Downie, Lucy Bongiovanni and Olivia Gallagher competed for Maribyrnong.
After a host of brilliant performances, the impressive bunch all will compete at the Australian championships later this month.
“It was a very successful day,” athletics co-ordinator Darren Clark said.
“A number of athletes qualified for the national all-schools which will be great.
“They have been progressing really well so we were expecting (to qualify) larger numbers than in the past.”
The Australian championships will take place in Launceston.
“They were all be training hard for that,” Clark said.
“Amelia Mazza Downie won the nationals last year and we think she will go pretty close again.
“Some of the others, it is their first time competing at an event like this so it will be great for them to experience that.”
The recent batch of good results on the athletics track comes as no surprise given the school’s high calibre coaching program.
Within the athletics program, former Olympians Pam Ryan and Tony Benson work with students while AIS coach Brent Vallance is also involved as strength and conditioning coach.
Clark said it was great to see the students achieving such high calibre results.
“We have got five coaches associated with the school,” he said.
“The kids train every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Some of them train purely with our coaches and we have a few who have an external coach as well and have that combination of training. They train basically all year out.
“We target the full athletic season. We have some school events but we are looking at their pathway events as well.
“Any competition that leads to that sort of representation where they compete for Victoria is what we target for them.”
