Swimming

Congratulations to all our swimmers who took part in the LVSSA swimming gala on Friday 16th February – excellent effort from you all with lots of you swimming up age groups too!

Lots of these girls have also been competing over the last few weekends at the County Championships and have achieved some incredible times/results and PBs, see summary below:

Teah Gregory (Year 11) – County Champion 50 fly, regional qualification time and broke two Stevenage club records – one that has stood since 2004!! Silver 100 fly, regional qualification time. Silver 50 freestyle. Off to regionals later in the year.

Mia Nelson (Year 8) – became the 13yrs Overall Age Group Winner at the Swim England Hertfordshire County Championships. She completed in a total of 16 events, securing 10 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze Age Group medals. Mia also broke the County Record Best Time for the 1500m Freestyle in her age group, and in the 400m IM she won a bronze medal in the Junior Championship (15yrs & under) category, on top of her age group placing of 1st. Mia gained 13 new PBs throughout the competition and has now achieved 14 Regional qualifying times for those championships being held later this year!

Molly Seymour (Year 9) – had 7 races and was in the finals for 6 out of 7 and came home with one bronze 200m breaststroke and 2 silver 50m/100m breaststroke in the finals and 1 new PB for 200 IM. Molly got 13 entries for the counties in total, but only chose 7. Molly also has 3 entries for the regionals already 50/100/200 breaststroke.

Liliana Sopala (Year 8) – entered 9 events and gained 7 PBs. She gained bronze and silver medals in 5 events plus two bronze Championship medals for placing in the U15s. She gained Regional qualification times for 4 events.

Kenzie Bradshaw (Year 9) – competed in 100m backstroke and 50m backstroke.

Amelie Renouf (Year 8) – competed in 100m breaststroke and 50m breaststroke.

Netball

Senior Team

Well done to the senior netball teams who competed in the senior district tournament on 27th February! The A team came second and the B team came joint 3rd! Great work girls! POTM A team was Evie Macrae and POTM B team was Jess Ward.

Year 8

A great opportunity for some of the Year 8 netball squad to get some more match play experience on 27th February. Heath Mount fielded two strong sides that provided some tough competition for us. One win and one loss but a great display of netball talent all round. Well done to all involved.

Another impressive performance from some of our Year 8 netball squad on Monday. This time against St Edmunds College. Excellent defensive work forcing the back pass, some superb movement in the centre court, and not forgetting the fantastic sharp shooting.

Sports Hall Athletics

Congratulations to our sports hall athletics squads for another impressive display last week. The competition was extremely tough in round 2, and we were just pipped to poll position in the Year 7 competition. The Year 8s managed to hold strong and retain their title from last year. Proud of you all.

Indoor Cricket

Congratulations to the U13 and U15 Cricket teams who competed in the Indoor Cricket Competition at Herts Sports Village on Monday 4th March. Both teams played a strong Beaumont and Tring team (which unfortunately resulted in loses)…. however, both had great games against Nobel – who they beat! Well done all involved!! Cricket Club continues Tuesday after school for anyone interested!

Handball

U13s

A group of Year 8 students travelled to Herts and Essex sports centre on Tuesday 5th March to participate in the first round of the National Schools Handball Competition. Despite no prior experience, Presdales drew one match and won three sending us through to the next round as winners! A fantastic display of how well our students can transfer their sporting talents.

U15s

Great performance from the U15s on Wednesday 6th Handball tournament securing 3rd place overall!

The girls faced some tough opposition from schools who play Handball regularly and have many players in Handball clubs outside of school. Presdales won 2 matches and lost 2 matches. The games we lost were narrow 4-3 defeats to the schools who ultimately contested the final, one of which was the 2023 National Champions. The girls led in both matches and were unlucky to lose, contesting the outcome right to the final whistle.

Presdales displayed the outstanding sporting prowess we are renowned for, and to come this close in a sport that is largely unfamiliar to the girls shows the depth of talent at the school. Truly brilliant performances and attitudes from all the girls. It was a real pleasure to spend the day with you all! Player of the Tournament was Honey Hudson who was outstanding throughout, plus special mention to Teairra Lyons who was brilliant in goal.

Football

U13s B

Well done to the U13s B football team who beat Chauncy 2-0 in a friendly last week. The girls played extremely well and were deserved winners. The girls battled to win every ball and had some lovely passing interchanges to create chances. The Chauncy goalkeeper was extremely busy and managed to keep the score line down.

Chauncy voted Jess Botheras their PoM and Coaches PoM was Florence Fisher. Well done to all the girls!

U13s

Congratulations to our U13s football team who recently reached the County Cup Final with a 4-2 win against Chauncy! This is the first time Presdales has reached a County football final at this age group.

In a dominant first half performance, the girls led 4-1 at half time. The highlight of the goals was a flick over the defenders head and a half volley on the angle from Keira Gale, a quite brilliant goal. Sienna Rowley also scored an outstanding solo goal after a mazy run.

At half time, I asked the girls to keep their focus and treat the score line as if it was still 0-0. Perhaps inevitably, their focus did fall off a bit allowing Chauncy to get back into the game.

Presdales just couldn’t score any further goals despite creating a lot of good chances. This leaves you open to a comeback and indeed Chauncy scored to make it 4-2 and narrowly missed another chance to take the score to 4-3. This made it a nervier finish than it should have been but Presdales held on for the win.

The girls can now look forward to the County Cup final in due course. This is a significant achievement in itself as Herts is a very strong county with many talented teams to overcome.

Chauncy voted Lola Wood their PoM. In terms of Coaches PoM, I couldn’t split 3 players who were all outstanding and displayed fantastic attitudes through the match. So a three way CPoM to Keira Gale, Lily Feast and Sienna Rowley. Well done to all the girls on a fantastic achievement!

U14s

Congratulations to the U14s football team who on Monday beat Parmiters 4-2 to reach the first ever County Cup Final for this age group at Presdales!

The girls played a fantastic first half leading 3-0 at half time and completely dominating the match. They also got off to a fast start in the second half going 4-0 ahead within the first five minutes and had several chances to extend the lead further. The girls were in complete control, however, in football you can never fully relax and after two fast breaks by Parmiters, suddenly the score was 4-2 with 10 mins left to play!

Presdales just couldn’t find the net again to put the tie completely to bed, but managed to see out the game quite comfortably in the end. We can now look forward to the County Cup Final in due course!

Coaches PoTM was Annabel Guy who had an outstanding match. Special mention to Poppy Ward who played in goal for the 1st time and did exceptionally well! Goals were scored by Annabel Guy, Mia Schillaci Rowland, Marlee Seymour and Amy Little. Well done to all the girls!!