BATHURST Netball Association’s juniors are holding their heads high after finishing inside the top 10 of all their respective Netball NSW State Age Championships competitions.
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Teams ranging from under 12s to 15s tested themselves in division two but were certainly up for the challenge on the Camden and District Netball Association courts.
The highlight for Bathurst was the performance of their under 14s who finished fifth.
Bathurst Netball Association media manager Emilie Miller said the under 14s’ result was a highlight among great performances from all the city’s teams.
“It’s really encouraging to see them finish in the top five. Our aim for all our teams at State Age was to have them finish inside the top 10 and they did that,” she said.
“We’re incredibly proud of them. To finish top five in division two, that’s such a remarkable result for our girls playing in such a competitive division.”
The under 14s finished with a 10-5-2 record.
Some of their biggest performances were a 20-17 loss to one of the division’s heavyweights Westlakes District, a gritty 12-8 win against Scone and a 24-5 thrashing of Central West rivals Dubbo.
Bathurst’s youngest team at the tournament also had an impressive result, coming home seventh.
The under 12s girls were big 20-8 winners over Orange and went down 6-5 to a strong Dubbo squad.
Other highlights for the squad were a massive 21-6 win over Woy Woy Peninsula and a 13-6 win over Blue Mountains.
Bathurst’s under 13s were impressive in a 20-14 loss to eventual undefeated winners Barellan and District and almost toppled runners-up Hastings Valley (14-12).
Only the under 15s finished with a negative win-loss record (8-10) but their competition included victories over major netball centres like City Of Sydney and Blacktown City.
Miller said another big positive from the tournament was the way Bathurst’s teams displayed adaptability and took on board information.
“All our grades fared very well against teams from around our region, as well as those from the metropolitan teams who gave our girls some very hard games,” she said.
“Our coaches are stoked. At the end of the day they’ve had not only a remarkable State Age, but they’ve had a great representative season.
“They’ve had really good games this season. One thing we said going into State Age that we were really proud of is that the girls have been able to take feedback from their coaches and implement that into their play. A big part of being a rep player is being able to take on advice to make improvements.”