Four Lower Great Southern Hockey Association juniors feature at Hockey Australia national championships

Four Lower Great Southern Hockey Association juniors featured in the Hockey Australia under-13 national championships in New South Wales last week. Spencer Park pair Evie Famlonga and Zoe Mills along with Bethel’s Ben Blechynden and Mt Barker’s Jethro Wright all pulled on State colours at the junior carnival held in Newcastle from September 23-29. The talented quartet returned from the championships with mixed results, facing teams from NSW, Victoria, Northern Territory, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland. Famlonga and Mills were part of the WA Lightning team that finished in seventh place after recording four wins, three draws and four losses. WA were victorious in their first game against NT after a 2-1 triumph before rattling off a second win against South Australia (1-0) on Saturday, September 23. They fell to defeat against NSW Stars 1-0, drew to WA Storm 0-0, lost to Queensland Cinders 3-0 and were outdone by Queensland Embers 2-0. On Wednesday, they battled to a 0-0 draw with Tasmania and were comprehensively beaten by ACT 3-0 later that day. After notching another draw (2-2) with NSW Lions, WA got back on the winners’ list with a 1-0 result against Victoria Venom. WA Lightning finished their campaign in style, coasting to a crushing 5-0 win over Victoria Volt as Mills hit the score sheet from a penalty corner in the 25th minute. Queensland Cinders were crowned champions after finishing first on the standings with an undefeated record of nine wins and two draws. Wright and Blechynden made up part of the WA Storm side that finished in 10th place after recording three wins and eight losses across the championships. The Storm started off in perfect fashion with a 1-0 win over ACT before losing to Victoria Venom (5-1), NSW Lions (2-1) and WA Lightning 3-1. NT edged out the Storm with a gruelling 1-0 win but they rebounded to prevail 3-0 over Victoria Volt. On Wednesday Storm went down 1-0 to Queensland Cutters and NSW Stars (3-0). Two back-to-back losses to SA (2-0) and Queensland Sabres (5-0) made things worse but they finished their campaign on a high, edging out Tasmania 1-0 in their final game. WA Lightning finished top of the standings to win the championships with a record of nine wins, one draw and one loss.