Last Friday 17 September saw the annual Wilderness Junior School Swimming Carnival take place at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre. The carnival was delayed following the COVID-19 restrictions in place earlier this term, so we were very thankful for the additional work of the Junior School staff, including Ms Liz McCarthy, Mr Derek Woodcock and Ms Deb Jarrett, which made our 2021 carnival possible.

Our enthusiastic Year 3 to 6 swimmers showed tremendous courage and House spirit on the day with very high levels of participation across our novelty, individual championship, and team relay events. This was made possible with the support of our Middle and Senior School volunteers who assisted with various duties during the day, including supporting our less confident swimmers to complete their events. Without this support, we would not have been able to have such high levels of participation, so a sincere thank you to our girls for making this possible.

Congratulations to Poppy Ritchie (Year 6), who placed first in all her individual events to win the Leigh Wilson Trophy with the highest aggregate individual points of 250. Evangeline Lee (Year 5) was our runner-up with an individual aggregate score of 232 points.

Congratulations to Sparaxis House, who secured both the Bowen Shield for Team Games and the GA Black Shield for the Overall House Competition.

The final placings for the Bowen Shield were:

• 1st Place: Sparaxis – 767 points
• 2nd Place: Cedar – 702 points
• 3rd Place: Antholiza – 670 points
• 4th Place: Amaryllis – 655 points
• 5th Place: Carob – 605 points

The final placings for the GA Black Shield were:

• 1st Place: Sparaxis – 2617 points
• 2nd Place: Cedar – 2059 points
• 3rd Place: Carob – 1591 points
• 4th Place: Antholiza – 1536 points
• 5th Place: Amaryllis – 1327 points

Boat Christening

The 2021/22 Rowing Season was officially launched last Friday 17 September on Memorial Lawn. We were so fortunate to christen a new VIII boat to the fleet made possible by the generosity of the Gosse family.

Naming a new boat is always a special occasion, but this was particularly significant with the new boat christened as the Judy Dyson to commemorate her outstanding life and contributions to Wilderness School. Ms Jane Danvers recounted her fond memories of Mrs Judy Dyson’s leadership, and it was an honour to welcome Judy’s daughter Kate Smith and granddaughter Charlotte Smith (Year 4) to christen the new boat.

Congratulations to our 2021/22 Rowing Captain Emma Jolly and Vice-Captain Georgina Birchall who spoke beautifully and were announced on Friday in the formal proceedings. We are excited for the season ahead under the leadership of our captains and seniors.

IGSSA Athletics

On Wednesday 22 September, the annual IGSSA Athletics Carnival took place at the SA Athletics Stadium. Wilderness was represented by 40 girls competing in a full schedule of both track and field events.

As always, it was an exceptionally high level of competition with several records broken on the day. The inclusion of non-IGSSA school, Trinity College, added another full school to the event and saw the highest ever number of participants with over 440 girls competing.

Despite not being able to field our full-strength team, Wilderness performed very well finishing 4th overall and 3rd of the IGSSA schools improving two places from 2020. Our Under 13 team narrowly missed winning their age group pennant by just eight points.

Overall Wilderness managed to place 1st in seven events, 2nd in 11 events and 3rd in 15 events. Congratulations to all our girls on their achievements and for their contributions on the day.

SAPSASA State Championships

On Tuesday 21 September, seven Wilderness girls competed in the State Championships Athletics Carnival for the North Adelaide District. The day saw the best girls and boys from across South Australia in Years 4 to 7 competing in their respective age groups.

Caitlin Hardin (Year 7) was a standout performer on the day winning the silver medal in both the 1500m and 800m Girls 12 Years events. Congratulations to Caitlin and all our Wilderness girls for their selection and participation in the 2021 State Championships.

SAPSASA AFL and Tennis

Recently, several Wilderness girls have trialled for the North Adelaide AFL and Tennis teams with the final positions decided this week. The selection trials have been highly competitive and they provide a valuable lesson for our girls when going through this process.

We are delighted to announce our six students who have earned selection on the District AFL team; Isabella Beaumont (Year 7), Jessica Davey (Year 7), Ruby Freemantle (Year 7), Caitlin Hardin (Year 7), Iris Newman (Year 7) and Lily Nicholls (Year 7).

With only four positions team positions available, a big congratulations to Isabelle Weng (Year 7) for her selection in the North Adelaide District Tennis team.