Two days of first-class Track and Field competition concluded on Friday with Marist College Ashgrove claiming the coveted Secondary Aggregate Shield for Track and Field for the 10th year in a row. Marist College was also able to claim the “Aggregate Double” by also winning the Primary Aggregate Shield for the fourth year in a row. Highlighting the quality of athlete that competes at the AIC Championships – eight individual and two relay records were broken over two glorious days of competition.

Marist College Ashgrove won the Primary Aggregate Shield

Marist College Ashgrove also claimed the Secondary Aggregate shield.

In an overall performance that showed that success at an event like the AIC Track and Field Championships requires a massive team effort- Marist College Ashgrove claimed the Year Level/Age Group trophy in 7 out of the 8 divisions. Villanova were able to prevent Marist College Ashgrove of claiming a clean sweep of the trophies with Villanova claiming the 12 Years division.

Villanova claimed the 12 Years Age Group Trophy

Marist College Ashgrove’s Director of Track and Field, Mr Richard Graham, was incredibly proud of the achievement of the Ashgrove athletes, not just this year, but also over the last decade.

“To win one AIC Track and Field Championship is a wonderful achievement. To be able to win 10 successive AIC Secondary Championships and 4 successive AIC Primary Championships is an extraordinary achievement in any era.” Mr Graham said.

The Marist College Ashgrove Track and Field Captains acknowledged during their acceptance speech on Friday the efforts of all their coaches but singled out the Marist College Ashgrove Head Coach- Mr Rob Martin for well-deserved praise. Mr Graham wholeheartedly supported this sentiment.

“It is important to recognise in particular our Head Coach, Mr Rob Martin, and all those coaches who have been involved along the way, and all the students who have contributed to the exceptional team performances across the past 10 years”. Mr Graham said.

Marist College Athletes claimed their 10th AIC Secondary Aggregate Shield in a row.

Behind Marist College Ashgrove there was an incredibly tight competition for the Championship minor places with the scores between the school coming 2nd and those chasing remaining close and changing frequently throughout the carnival. After the final event, Iona were able to claim second place in the Secondary Aggregate Championship, a solitary point in front of St Peters in third place. Padua were able to achieve second place in the Primary Aggregate Championship, with Iona in third.

There were a number of incredible performances throughout the carnival highlighted by the eight individual and two relay records that were set during the competition. In what could be argued easily as the best race of the championship, four students broke the previous 1500m record in the 16 Years event. Congratulations to Harry Luschwitz (2nd- Padua), Zac Milligan (3rd- Marist College Ashgrove) and Bailey Horvath (4th Villanova) who all broke the previous record. Special congratulations to Oscar McKean (St Laurence’s) who is the new AIC record holder with a time of 4:01.21. Oscar now holds the 15 Years and 16 Years AIC 1500m records after a similarly high standard 15 Years 1500m race in 2023.

In August, Terrell Thorne (St Laurence’s) represented Australia at the IAAF U20 World Athletics Championships in the 400m event. Terrell was able to place 7th in the World Championships in Lima, Peru. Anticipation was in the air to see Terrell run at the AIC Championships- the carnival where he commenced his 400m competitive journey and his performance under beautiful blue skies did not disappoint. Terrell ran an amazing time of 47.88 seconds- breaking the previous AIC Championship record by almost 2 seconds. What further makes this record even more of an achievement was the fact that earlier in the day Terrell had also broken the 200m AIC Record (21.64). Then less than a half an hour before his 400m race he secured the win in the 100m event. Winning the sprint treble (100m, 200m, 400m) at Open AIC level is a wonderful achievement- to do so and claim two AIC records makes this achievement incredibly special and rare.

Terrell Thorne won the Open 100m/200m/400m- including AIC records in the 200m and 400m.

Jalen Taulapiu (Iona) was the second of the multiple record breakers for the carnival. Jalen was able to claim both the 12 Years Shot Put and Discus records. Jalen’s throw in the Discus event of 39.24m broke the previous record by almost 4 metres. Equally as impressive, Jalen’s Shot Put performance of 14.67m was over a metre further than the previous mark.  A quick look at the record books shows that Jalen joins a long line of Iona throwers who hold AIC records in the Shot Put and Discus. In fact, Iona College athletes now hold 7 out of the 8 AIC Shot Put records.

Marcus Page (Padua) became the first Year 6 student to go under the 13 second barrier in the 100m at the AIC Championships. Marcus ran the main straight at QSAC in a blistering time of 12.74 seconds- beating the previous record by over a quarter of a second.  The AIC Track and Field Championships always delivers quality High Jump performances with two High Jump records being broken this year. Hugo Lockhart (Marist College Ashgrove) broke the Year 6 High Jump record with a leap of 1.52m- breaking the previous record by 1cm. Ashton Samson-Wood (St Laurence’s) jumped impressively in very windy conditions late on Thursday afternoon (Day 1) to break the 13 Years High Jump record. Ashton’s best jump of 1.84m broke the previous record by 8cm.

The 6 x 400m event is one of the most exciting events of the meet. For almost every boy who competes in the event, the AIC Championships is the only event they will get a chance to compete in a 400m relay and the AIC event may be the only 6 x 400m in the country. Padua College has built a tradition of excelling in this event and the 2024 team’s performance further emphasised Padua’s passion for this unique race. After breaking the record in 2023, the Padua team further smashed that mark set 12 months ago, setting a new record of 5:34.26. This was over 4 seconds quicker than 2023.

Marist College Ashgrove’s Year 6 4 x 100m Division 1 relay team was able to put the exclamation mark on the overall Marist College Ashgrove primary school performance by breaking the record in the Year 6 event. The Marist team recorded an impressive time of 52.92 to break the previous mark by almost a second.

The Associated Independent Colleges would like to thank the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre (QSAC) for again hosting our Track and Field Championships. Special thanks to all of the officials supplied by Queensland Athletics who ensure the competition is conducted following the laws of Track and Field. Thank you to the host Colleges- St Laurence’s and St Peters and the recording College- Villanova. Thank you to all staff from each College who assisted with conducting the carnival and to the large number of parent spectators who were in attendance over the two days. Congratulations to the over 3000 student spectators who supported their teams on Friday. The atmosphere inside the venue was incredible.

Overall Championship Results 

Year Level/Age Group Division Winners