On Friday 18 March our Wilderness SAPSASA Swimming Team competed in the North Adelaide District Carnival against the top swimmers in the District and for selection in the Metro State Swimming Championships.

We are so proud of and excited for our young team of swimmers, in Years 4 to 6, who were outstanding on the day.

Our girls were the top performers, edging out the co-ed and boys’ schools to win the Overall Champion School Pennant by two points over St Peter’s College.

Congratulations to our individual podium finishers:

Matilda Burns - 1st 100m Open Freestyle, 2nd 12yo Butterfly, 3rd 12yo Freestyle

Ivy Dowd - 2nd 100m Open Freestyle, 1st 10yo Backstroke, 1st 10yo Breaststroke

Emilia Varricchio - 1st 10yo Freestyle, 2nd 10yo Butterfly

Ariana Ng - 2nd 10yo Freestyle, 2nd 10yo Breaststroke, 1st 10yo Butterfly

Anise Black - 3rd 10yo Backstroke

Grace Tully - 2nd 11yo Butterfly

Addison Munt - 3rd 11yo Backstroke

Evangeline Lee - 1st 12yo Backstroke, 3rd 12yo Breaststroke, 3rd 12yo Butterfly

Thank you to all our parents and staff for making this event possible and congratulations to our girls. We look forward to sharing the girls who have been invited to contest the Metro Championships when announced.

Head of the River

Saturday 19 March saw the 100th Head of the River take place and despite the challenges faced in the past few weeks, it was an outstanding day of celebrations for Wilderness.

Of the 16 crews that boated, Wilderness achieved 10 x Gold Medals, 2 x Silver Medals, 2 x Bronze Medals and 2 x 4th place finishes. An absolutely outstanding outcome for our girls, coaches and parent supporters who have helped these girls through one of the most challenging seasons with the ongoing pandemic.

Our First VIII perhaps faced the biggest challenge by losing two crew members on Monday just five days before the race.

The girls did an amazing job pulling together and a big thank you to Gracie Dowling and Lulu Detmold-Cox for throwing themselves into a crew on the day. The girls led the race at the halfway mark but couldn’t quite hold on finishing a valiant fourth. The way this group of girls managed adversity this year is inspiring and will no doubt be a life lesson in years to come.

Summer Intercol

With the challenges being faced by all schools to field teams, Summer Intercol has been modified for 2022 to focus on the Senior A, Premier League and First teams playing for the trophies and overall points tally.

Our Premier League Tennis and Volleyball took to the courts on Monday at Seymour for a double header event.

The tennis was hard-fought through the doubles and singles rounds and the final scores did not reflect the tightly fought games. A big congratulations to our Tennis Co-Captain, Amolika Bhatia, for her exciting 6-3 result in her singles match. The first time in recent years that our Premier League girls have won a set in the Tennis Intercol.

Our rebuilding Volleyball team found the first set challenging against a strong Seymour outfit featuring several State Team players. Our girls showed considerable improvement in the second set pushing Seymour all the way finishing 20-25.