Term 2 Sport is the largest term for overall student participation numbers in the AIC. Over 7000 students participated in Chess, Cross Country, Football and Rugby during Term 2 in 2024. Competition was incredibly close in all 4 sports, with both ‘Premierships’ and ‘Aggregate Championships’ going down to the wire.

CHESS
After 7 Rounds of exciting Chess, St Peters came out on top in both the First IV and overall Aggregate Chess Championships. Competition in AIC Chess is always tight, as shown by the fact that premierships were won by 4 different schools in 2024.

The overall Aggregate Championship Shield was won by St Peters- the school’s 6th Aggregate Championship since AIC Chess Competition commenced in 2004. The school was able to finish in the top 2 in each of the 5 Aggregate Divisions including winning three of those divisions – First IV, Senior B and Junior A. St Laurence’s retained second place in the aggregate with Marist College Ashgrove in third.

The First IV premiership came down to the final round, with St Peters holding the advantage over St Laurence’s by 2 points. St Peters and St Laurence’s played out a thrilling 8-all draw in Round 2 that raised the possibility of a shared premiership at the end of the season. A shared premiership was on track until Marist College Ashgrove defeated St Laurence’s in Round 6.  This result allowed St Peters to take an outright lead in the division which they were able to hold onto through the last round.

St Laurence’s were able to hold onto second place in the First IV premiership and Marist College Ashgrove finished third.

In the Senior A Division Marist College Ashgrove secured the premiership with an impressive undefeated season which included three nail biting 9-7 victories. St Peters claimed the Senior B title undefeated, holding onto the premiership after a narrow victory against the 2nd placed Marist College Ashgrove team in Round 4.

Villanova teams were prominent in both the Intermediate A and B divisions. Going into the final round of competition, Villanova were in the hunt to win both premierships. The final round fixtures between St Peters and Villanova would decide the Intermediate A premiership. St Peters were able to secure the win 9-7 with the fixture going down to the final game. This secured St Peters the premiership and Villanova 2nd place in a very tightly fought division. Villanova were able to still secure the overall Intermediate B division title after an impressive season by the team.

The future of chess at St Laurence’s looks very bright with the South Brisbane school being able to claim the double in the primary divisions, claiming undefeated seasons in both the Junior A and B divisions. AIC primary division chess is a great introduction to competition Chess, with games played in a supportive environment.

This year, a number of schools expanded their Chess offering to students by including “C Teams” each week into fixtures. This allowed for a greater number of boys to participate each week and the hope is these divisions may expand in the future.

CROSS COUNTRY

The AIC Cross Country Championships were again held at Curlew Park under beautiful Brisbane autumn skies. The warm autumn day and dry conditions allowed for some excellent racing on a very fast course. The competition between the 8 AIC member College’s and ‘guest’ College- Ambrose Treacy was of the highest quality and included over 800 students.

There were some incredible individual and team performances throughout the day commencing with the Iona Year 5 team in the very first event. The Iona team was able to place their first 6 runners across the line in the top 8 overall placegetters. This is an incredible result and the team score of 29 was the lowest individual age group or year level score of the day. There were some incredibly tight finishes in many of the age group team competitions highlighted by the 14 Years competition. Iona (88 Points) claimed a narrow win in the age group over Marist College Ashgrove (91 Points).

One of the best individual races of the day was in the 16 Years event with Zac Milligan (MAR), Harry Luschwitz (PAD) and Hugh Jones-Sheppard (SLC) battling out over the 6km. Displaying the great talent that exists in AIC Cross Country, all three boys have represented Queensland in the sport and the race between the boys was very entertaining and of the highest quality. At the finish line, Zac was able to hit the front and claim the AIC 16 Years Individual Championship.

In the grueling Open 6km event, a large pack formed over the first half of the race comprising students from at least 5 Colleges. It was wonderful to see the Senior students- for many in their last Cross country event for their College giving one hundred percent effort in this challenging event. Over the concluding stages, Marist College Ashgrove Co-Captain Asher Parkin was able to pull away and win the event in a time of 19:32.

Congratulations to Marist College Ashgrove who claimed both the Primary and Secondary Championship Aggregate Shields. This was an excellent team effort by the boys from Ashgrove. Iona claimed second place in both the Primary and Secondary competitions. Padua claimed third in the primary competition with St Laurence’s and Villanova tied for third place in the secondary competition.

To relive some of the action from the 2024 AIC Cross Country Championships- please click on the link below.

AIC Cross Country Championships 2024

 FOOTBALL

In 26 years of AIC Football Competition, a season has never been so close with both the Aggregate Championship and First XI Premierships being decided in the final games of the season. This year 229 teams participated in AIC Football.

The Aggregate Championship for the title of Champion AIC Football school came down to a battle between the two schools who in AIC history have claimed 20 Football Aggregate Championships between them- Marist College Ashgrove (11 Aggregate Football Championships) and St Laurence’s (9 Aggregate Football Championships). The Aggregate Football Championship is calculated by combining the final placings of each team in each of the 12 “Aggregate” Premierships. After 7 rounds and hundreds of fixtures across the Association, the 2024 Aggregate Football Championship was “Shared” between Marist College Ashgrove and St Laurence’s College. This is the first time the Football aggregate had been shared and only one of a handful of times that a team sport aggregate had been shared since AIC’s inception in 1999. A historic moment for the Association. Padua College finished third in the Football aggregate in 2024.

The First XI Premiership was equally as tight, with three schools going into the final round of games with an opportunity to win the coveted premiership. Marist College Ashgrove entered the final day with a 2-point lead in the premiership- knowing a draw against St Edmund’s would secure, at worst, a share of the premiership. After stellar seasons, both St Edmund’s and St Patrick’s entered the final day knowing that a win to both teams would give them both a share of the premiership after they both played out a pulsating 2-2 result in Round 6. The quality of matches on the final day- and throughout the season- did not disappoint with 2023 First XI Premiers- Iona College holding St Patrick’s to a 1-1 draw. The premiership would come down to the final game of the season between Marist College Ashgrove and St Edmund’s. A tense game ensued with St Edmund’s breaking the deadlock midway through the 2nd half, only for the fighting spirit of the Marist College Ashgrove team to shine through in equalising soon after. The final 10 minutes was exciting football as both teams looked for a winner that didn’t eventuate and the 1-1 final result allowed Marist College to celebrate winning the First XI Premiership.

St Edmund’s and St Patrick’s finished equal in 2nd place in the First XI Premiership. Both College communities should be incredibly proud of their team’s efforts to be so close to winning the 1st XI premiership.

With their shared Championship in the Aggregate competition, Marist College Ashgrove and St Laurence’s were bound to be premiers in a large number of both the Aggregate and Non-Aggregate Football Divisions. Marist was able to claim the 1st XI, 2nd XI, 10A, 9A, 9B, 8B and 7C premierships. Marists undefeated 2nd XI season was memorable- going through the season without conceding a goal until the final game. Marist also claimed one of the closest AIC Premierships with the undefeated 10A team. Special mention in this division to the St Patrick’s College 10A team who also went through the season undefeated- their season included 5 draws- what many are saying is an AIC season record. It clearly shows the close competition of AIC Football. Marists 9A, 9B, 8B and 7C teams all went through their seasons undefeated.

St Laurence’s claimed the 3rd XI, 4th XI, 5th XI, 8A, 8C (Shared), 7A and 7B premierships. St Laurence’s entered more teams into the AIC Football competition in 2024 than any other school, highlighted by 8 teams in the Open Division. They were able to achieve undefeated seasons in the 3rd XI, 4th XI, 5th XI, 8A and 7A competitions and remarkably was runner up in 5 other premierships- only finishing outside the top 3 teams in 1 of the Aggregate Premierships.

Padua College were able to be crowned premiers in the 10B, 10C and 9C divisions. With a large number of teams finishing in the top 3 of their divisions, the future of Padua Football is very bright. One of schools who showed the biggest improvement in Football results in 2024 was St Patrick’s. The St Patrick’s 8C team was able to share the premiership and their overall aggregate result of 4th was the highest in the school’s AIC Football history.

In the junior football development years of Year 5 and 6, there are no premierships are awarded in AIC Divisions. These years are an opportunity for boys to be exposed to the increased level of competition that comes with participation in AIC sport but to do so in a non-premiership environment. In the 2024 AIC football season, there were a record number of teams participating in primary divisions and a large number will still have the opportunity to celebrate undefeated seasons within their own school communities. A special mention in the Year 5 and 6 Divisions must go to St Laurence’s College, Padua College and Marist College Ashgrove. All three schools allowed for teams in their primary to play in divisions above their school’s normally allocated divisions. This allowed for a closer standard of competition each week across a number of divisions.

 RUGBY
The AIC season came to a dramatic end with a ‘Premiership Decider’ in the First XV competition and the perennial AIC Rugby Aggregate winning school regaining the coveted AIC Aggregate Shield. It was another exciting, skill filled season in one of the largest schoolboy Rugby competitions in Australia.

For the third year in a row, the AIC First XV Premiership was decided on the final day of the season with two schools battling it out for the prestigious premiership. In a repeat of the 2023 decider, Padua and St Laurence’s would play in Round 7 with a win for Padua rewarding them with an outright premiership and a win for St Laurence’s resulting in a shared premiership between the Kedron and South Brisbane Schools. This scenario was set up by Marist College Ashgrove in Round 6 inflicting the first defeat on the St Laurence’s First XV since 2019- an incredible run of results for St Laurence’s and one that community should be incredibly proud off. In the deciding game, the fighting spirit of St Laurence’s was on display, responding to a positive and fast start by Padua with St Laurence’s hitting the front midway through 2nd half. Not wanting to let the opportunity slip two years in a row, Padua rallied late, scoring two tries before St Laurence’s converted a penalty to set up a grandstand finish. With St Laurence’s mounting an attack, Padua were able to secure the ball and kick the ball out to claim an undefeated premiership. Final score 27-22. Congratulations to Padua College for winning First XV Premiership title for the first time since 2016. St Laurence’s, Iona and Marist College Ashgrove finished the season sharing second place.

With a large number of the players in the 2024 Premiership team only in Year 11, Padua College will be looking forward to the challenge of defending the First XV Premiership next year.

In 2024, Marist College Ashgrove regained the Aggregate Shield for Champion AIC Rugby School. This was the school’s 22nd Aggregate Championship and was built across excellent results in all 12 ‘Aggregate’ Premierships. Across these 12 premiership divisions, the Marist College Ashgrove team finished in the top 3 of each division. Marist College Ashgrove continued to have the strongest presence in team numbers in the Association, each week 34 teams representing the Ashgrove school.

5 schools won individual Rugby division premierships in 2024. These included Padua’s triumph in the First XV Premiership.

Marist College Ashgrove was able to achieve outright premierships in the 4th XV, 10C, 9B, 9C, 8C, 7B and 7C. In one of the closest and most exciting premierships, Marist College also shared the 2nd XV premiership with Iona College.

Iona College secured the 3rd XV and 8B premierships and shared the 2nd XV (with Marist College Ashgrove) and 8A (with Villanova) premierships.

The Open Rugby teams at Villanova will be strengthened over the next two years with players from Villanova’s undefeated 10A and 10B premiership winning teams of 2024. Villanova also secured a shared premiership in the 8A competition.

The success of the St Laurence’s First XV over the last 5 years will be great inspiration for the younger students at the South Brisbane school.  This year, St Laurence’s secured the 9A and 7A premierships undefeated, with a highlight being the 7A team going through the season only conceding 3 tries.

The standard of Rugby being played in Year 5 and 6 continues to build each year and it is wonderful to see the endeavour, enthusiasm and enjoyment our youngest Rugby players display each and every week of the season. Whilst the Association does not award premierships for these development years, schools will be able to celebrate very successful seasons within their own community.