The University of Tasmania’s team has returned from the UniSport Nationals with a fist full of medals and a new trophy to add to the cabinet.
There was gold for the Sailing, Mixed Squash and Division 2 Futsal teams, silver for individuals in the Women’s Squash and bronze for the Men’s Squash and the Women’s Rowing. While the Men’s Hockey and Basketball teams each finished 5th in Division 1.
In addition to that the University of Tasmania team won the Hugh McKechnie Trophy for the per capita champion of the Southern Region. The trophy goes to the most successful university in the southern region based on the number of students who participated.
Those efforts lifted the University of Tasmania into 8th place overall university for UniSport competitions in 2022, blitzing the previous best finish of 27th in 2019 for the University.
University Director of Campus Living, Sport and Recreation, Don Knapp said the achievements were “enormous” and capped off a fantastic year of university sport nationally.
“These overall results have come through in the wake of our successful efforts at the UniSport Nationals in Perth at the end of September,” he said.
“It’s been an incredible year of university sport for the University of Tasmania.”
September’s UniSport Nationals in Perth saw 77 athletes across 10 teams competing in eight different sports against 42 other universities across the country.
University Team Captain, Sailing Captain and UTAS Elite Athlete Sam King said the Sailing team was quite confident they would do well leading into the event.
After the first day it was clear we would have to improve daily to beat the team from the University of Notre Dame.
"When we got to the finals series the team got momentum quickly and didn’t slow down, leading to the gold medal,” Sam, who is completing his Bachelor of Maritime Engineering with Honours, said.
"Being a part of Team UTAS was a great experience and having some dinners in the park as a full University team was a great way to debrief at the end of each day.”
There were standout individual performances in Perth including a silver medal in Squash Women’s Singles for Graduate Certificate in Nursing (Specialisation) student Maggy Marshall, bronze in the Squash Men’s Singles for Master of Teaching student Jack Hudson and bronze to Exercise and Sport Science student Sophie Robinson in the Women’s Lightweight Single Scull (Rowing).
The Mixed Sailing and Mixed Squash teams triumphed to win gold medals, which were amazing results and were a major contributor to the UTAS team finishing 8th ranked university overall for 2022.
Honourable mentions in Perth for the Men’s Hockey and the Men’s Basketball teams who each finished 5th out of 34 teams.
There has been growth in the success of basketball at the University through the partnership with Swisherr Hoops Academy, with Mark Nash from Swisherr putting in a big effort to coach the men’s and women’s teams in Perth.
The successes in Perth are in addition to numerous successes throughout the year, including a gold and bronze medal at the Athletics National Championships, partnering with Swisherr Hoops Academy in hosting the 3x3 Basketball National Championships, winning the Spirit of the Games Award at the Indigenous Nationals through a collaboration with Riawunna Centre for Education, and the UTAS Cricket Team winning the Bronze medal at the T20 Cricket Championships.
“The year has been very successful and was a credit to all students, coaches and managers involved throughout the year,” Anthony Jusup, UTAS Sport Operations Manager, said.
He said he was looking forward to what the University of Tasmania would achieve in 2023.