Wallis Russell (Boat) and Belinda Snell (Sydney Uni Flames) shared the 2017 Female Sportswomen of the Year award, while Anthony Hrysanthos (Water Polo) was named Sportsman of the Year at the annual 2017 Sports Awards presentation dinner in the Great Hall.
In a year of outstanding performances, Russell and Snell were up against Clare Hunt (Soccer), Michelle Jenneke (Athletics) and Holly Crawford (Snow Sport).
Belinda is the captain of the Brydens Sydney Uni Flames and long-term Australian women’s basketball star. She is also currently competing with the Australian Opals Squad at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Snell has represented the Opals at three Olympics Games and two Commonwealth Games and at World Championships and was named the University of Sydney Female Blue of the Year for 2017, as Captain of the Flames 2016-17 Championship winning side.
Wallis is a talented rower who, despite still being classified as a Junior (Under 19) in 2017, competed in Under 23 and Open aged events with great success. At the 2017 NSW State Championships, Wallis won four gold medals in the Under-23 Lightweight Women’s Single Scull, Under-23 Lightweight Women’s Double Scull, Open Women’s Eight, and Open Lightweight Quadruple Scull.
Wallis was a member of the winning Women’s Eight from SUBC at the prestigious Gold Cup regatta. She also stroked the winning Sydney University Women’s crew in the Australian Boat Race, winning the Bella Guerin trophy for the first time. Wallis was also selected onto the 2017 Australian Rowing team in the Under-23 Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Scull, who placed 6th at the World Championships.
Water polo goalkeeper Anthony Hrysanthos was also up against a tough field for the 2017 Sportsman of the Year award, including Will Raven (Boat), Andrew Judge (Boat) and Nick Hough (Athletics).
Anthony was selected in the Aussie Sharks Australian side in 2017, competing in the FINA World League Intercontinental Tournament on the Gold Coast. He played a major role in contributing in helping the Sharks secure the gold. He was also a part of the National team that attended the FINA World League Super Finals, where they placed 7th; the Syracuse Cup, where they finished 3rd; and the FINA World Championships, where the Sharks finished 7th.
Anthony also had very successful season competing for the Sydney University Lions in the Metropolitan competition, where they finished with the gold, and the National League, where the Lions took out the silver. He was also selected on the Green and Gold team last year’s University Games.
The other major announcements on the night were the male and female recipients for Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarships for 2018.
Dr Michael Spence was on hand to present the Scholarships to Holly Crawford, a Winter Olympic snowboarder who is studying for a Master of Project Management, and Will North, a NSW State Champion decathlete, who is in his 4th year of Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Science degrees.
Holly made fourth Winter Olympic appearance at the recent PyeongChang Games in South Korea, having made her debut at the Torino Games in 2006, where she finished 18th in the snowboard halfpipe. She moved up the standings at the 2010 Vancouver Games, finishing eighth in the same event.
She was on song for a podium finish at the 2014 Sochi Games after finishing with a silver medal at the Olympic test event but a crash three weeks before the Games left her with two broken wrists, broken ribs and knee injuries.
In between all of Holly’s Olympic Games, she claimed silver at the 2009 World Championships in Korea – Australia’s first Snowboard Halfpipe World Championship medal. She went on to win the World Championship crown in 2011, and claim another silver medal in 2013.
Holly has also performed exceptionally well on the academic stage and maintained a HD average in her Masters degree throughout 2017.
Will was the recipient of the VC’s Scholarship in 2016 and 2017. On the sporting front, he was NSW Under 20 Decathlon Champion in 2015 and won silver at the Australian Championships then same year.
In 2016 Will won the silver medal in the Under 20 NSW Championships and back that up with a bronze medal in the Open State Championships.
At the Australian University Games, Will has placed 1st and 4th in the Opens Decathlon and has competed with other SUAC athletes in the NSW State relays, winning medals in javelin, shot put and discus.
In 2017 Will also won the Under 23 gold medal in discus and the silver medal in shot put at the NSW Championships and repeated the performance this year.
On the academic front, Will is in his 4th year of Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Science degrees and has achieved an HD average every year.
He has received several chemical engineering prizes, as well as Academic Merit prizes and being acknowledged in the Dean’s List of Excellence in Academic performance each year.
Throughout 2017, Will continued to demonstrate outstanding academic excellence. He rounded out the year with an academic average of 93 and has received a Chancellor’s Award for a third consecutive year.
And the University recently awarded him with the Major Industry Project Placement Scholarship, where 10 engineering students in their final year get the opportunity to work in leading companies for six months.
Other awards presented on the night included the Pat Sharp Female Club Administrator of the Year which went to the Taekwondo Club’s Tina Gao in a strong field that included Lisa Darke (women’s cricket), Sarah Cook (Boat Club), and Tegan Cox (cycling).
As president in 2017, Tina scored the club a record-breaking amount of O-Week signups, and has been untiring in her efforts to expand the Taekwondo Club’s member base and acquiring enough funding for the club to acquire new equipment.
Chas Wilkinson was awarded the Rosenblum – Male Club Administrator of the Year in a field that included Wade Shipard (Baseball Club), Will Raven (Boat Club) and John Boultbee (Boat Club).
As President of the Sydney University Australian National Football Club from 2010-17, Chas Wilkinson oversaw the club’s introduction into the National Second Tier, NEAFL competition.
In 2017 Chas orchestrated the end-to-end recruitment of the club’s largest ever sponsorship agreement, a five-year agreement with Growthbuilt.
Chas continued to push the club in new directions in 2017, always with the desire to see SUANFC as the No.1 State League AFL club in the country.
The Professional Administrator of the Year Award went to Dustyn Butler (Boat Club) in a field that included Dale Bryant (Cricket Club), Jack Prato (Australian National Football Club), Stephanie Glanville-Fyfe (Soccer Football Club) and Kirsty Stevens (Football Club).
The Ann Mitchell Award for the Most Outstanding Performance at the Australian University Games or Australian University Championships went to the Boat Club. Other nominations were Athletics (Women) and Soccer (Women).
Sydney University Boat Club was the only sport to win both the Men’s and Women’s 2018 AUG titles. The team won gold medals in several events, including women’s lightweight single scull, women’s lightweight quad scull, women’s coxed four, mixed eight, mixed four, men’s pair, men’s coxed four and men’s Eight (Oxford and Cambridge Cup).
The Netball Club was named Club of the Year in a field that included Women’s AFL and the American Football Club.
In 2017 the Netball Club made a new partnership with Inner Western Suburbs Netball Association, had three teams finishing the season as minor premiers and two going on to win premierships. The Club also won gold at EUGS and bronze at AUGS.
The Premier Club of the Year was shared by the Boat Club and Sydney Uni Flames in a hot field that included the Women’s Water Polo Club, the Athletics Club and the Cricket Club.
SUBC celebrated its most successful year on record. Notable results included the women winning the Bella Guerin trophy in the Australian Boat Race for the first time and claiming Men’s, Women’s and Overall point scores at the Australian University Games. SUBC also topped the pointscore at the 2017 NSW State Rowing Championships and Jack Hargreaves claimed gold at the 2017 World Championships, the first time Australia has won this event since the Oarsome Foursome 26 years ago. SUBC provided 12 athletes on the Australian Rowing team, including Open and Under 23s, in 2017.
The club also opened their new SUBC Thyne Reid Boathouse at Linley Point and established an SUSF Rowing scholarship, named the Jane Spring Scholarship. And club treasurer John Boultbee was awarded the prestigious World Rowing Distinguished Service Award to Rowing.
Sydney Uni Flames faced all manner of adversity during the 2016-17 season. Between pre-season injuries, a slow start, and a questionably placed western road trip between Christmas and New Year, the team overcame all obstacles to emerge as WNBL champions, winning their final 12 games to ride roughshod over their finals opponents and take home the title in a sweep over the Dandenong Rangers. The championship was also the first for the club under the Sydney Uni banner, a long-overdue reward for a program ensuring there would be a continued Sydney presence in the WNBL. Credit must go to WNBL Coach Of The Year Cheryl Chambers and her team of coaches and staff for the culture that they have succeeded in creating a championship winning side.
The Coach of the Year award went to American Football’s long-standing mentor Andrew Ogbourne, in a field that included Eugene (Netball), Brendan Micallef (Swimming) and Stephen Bennie (Women’s Rugby).
Andrew coached Sydney Uni Lions to the 2017 Gridiron NSW Division 1 championship, the highest level of competition in the state. The Lions completed the 2017 season with a record of 11-1 while scoring 425 points and conceding 107 for an average game score of 35-9. The fact that the championship continues a streak stretching back to 2003 does not diminish the achievement of coach Ogborne in 2017, who was inducted into the Gridiron NSW Hall of Fame.
The Premier Coach of the Year award was shared by Alfie Young (Boat Club) and Cheryl Chambers (Flames) in a field that included Robert Taylor (Men’s Rugby) and Tom Morrison.
