EXCITING young-guns and experienced competitors from eight different clubs, including Mollymook’s Brock Scrivener, Kate Lewis and Sam Zustovich, have been named in two separate Surf Life Saving Country NSW teams on Tuesday.
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Country squads to contest the 2019 Trans-Tasman Series and the Interstate Championships both to be staged in January have officially been endorsed by the selection panel, and coming just days before the annual Interbranch Competition the announcement is sure to give the athletes a boost.
Open only to surf sport athletes who compete for clubs outside the Hunter to Illawarra corridor, these two representative teams are a wonderful opportunity for the lifesavers to challenge themselves against the best surf sport athletes Australia has to offer.
NSW Country have been a dominant force at the biennale Trans-Tasman Series ever since they were admitted and have won three successive titles including in 2017 against their rivals Northern (New Zealand) and Central Coast (NSW) Branch.
They will be hoping for more of the same when the competition is hosted by Central Coast in early January and will be out to proudly defend their title.
At the 2018 Interstate Championships held in South Australia an Open Division Country team was invited to compete for the first time.
These inaugural trailblazers were so successful in their first foray in this environment that the experiment will be repeated at Newport next year when NSW hosts the Championships.
Twenty-four athletes have been selected in this squad which will also include the first ever Youth competitors who are quietly confident of reaching the same level of success that their older counterparts achieved in 2018.
Both teams will be coached by Scott McCartney.
15 of the athletes have been selected in both squads which gives them even more of chance to compete at a higher level.
Underscoring the depth in NSW Country and the challenge faced by selectors is the fact that the squad boasts NSW and Australian medal winning athletes in their ranks.
SLSNSW development officer Chiara Nowland said it’s a wonderful opportunity for the selected athletes to gain representative experience and to push for higher honours.
“Country surf lifesavers are incredibly proud of their hometown clubs and getting the chance to wear their colours is a rare opportunity for them, so to be able to give them this chance to race is something that we’re very proud to do and will help them as they carve out their careers in the wave on the beach and in the sand,” Nowland said.
“It was a very tough decision for the selectors with so many talented athletes in contention for the squads.
“Many of these competitors have had success at the Country, NSW and Australian Championships so we’re certainly looking forward to seeing what they can do next year.”
2019 NSW Country Trans-Tasman Team
Under 17s division: Cahrizma MacDonald (Cabarita Beach SLSC), Maisie Miller (Lennox Head-Alstonville SLSC), Hayley Smith (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Joseph Warne (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Nathan Mackenzie (Lennox Head-Alstonville SLSC) and Finn Askew (Tacking Point SLSC).
Under 19s division: Anthea Warne (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Chloe Jones (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Brooke Cavanagh (Warilla-Barrack Point SLSC), Josh Jones (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Kai Onley (Cudgen Headland SLSC) and Sam Zustovich (Mollymook SLSC).
Open division: Jordan White (Warilla Barrack-Point SLSC), Maddy Bakker (Warilla Barrack-Point SLSC), Kate Lewis (Mollymook SLSC), Luke Chaffer (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Angus MacPhail (Cudgen Headland SLSC) and Brock Scrivener (Mollymook SLSC).
2019 NSW Country Interstate Team
Youth division: Anthea Warne (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Paige Leishman (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Hayley Smith (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Claudia Crawford (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Brooke Cavanagh (Warilla-Barrack Point SLSC), Cahrizma MacDonald (Cabarita Beach SLSC), Nathan Mackenzie (Lennox Head-Alstonville SLSC), Joseph Warne (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Finn Askew (Tacking Point SLSC), Hugh Stewart (Wauchope-Bonny Hills SLSC), Will Jones (Byron Bay SLSC) and Sam Zustovich (Mollymook SLSC).
Open division: Jordan White (Warilla Barrack-Point SLSC), Maddy Bakker (Warilla Barrack-Point SLSC), Sofie Boyd (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Chloe Jones (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Mahli Borham (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Kate Lewis (Mollymook SLSC), Luke Chaffer (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Angus MacPhail (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Kai Onley (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Josh Jones (Cudgen Headland SLSC), Brock Scrivener (Mollymook SLSC) and Jayden Allen (Warilla Barrack-Point SLSC).
