Elite athlete round up

With a plethora of incredible elite athletes at UNSW, the profile and reputation of the university is building as our athletes embody the spirit of UNSW on and off the field. As we approach the middle of the year, we're taking a look at just a few of the members of our Elite Athlete Program, sports scholarship holders and notable alumni.

RUGBY & RUGBY 7s
In the Shute Shield, Christian Poidevin and Nick Wilkinson have been flying the UNSW flag, playing for community partner Randwick Rugby in first grade. Their team is currently sitting in eighth place on the ladder, with three wins and four losses so far. In the Super Rugby we also have Ned Hanigan and James Ramm playing for the Waratahs, who are currently sitting third in the Australian conference, just three points behind Brumbies in first with four rounds to play before the finals series begins. Ben Lexcen scholar Triston Reilly recently starred in a Junior Wallabies win over New Zealand, where he scored a sensational try. And finally, Henry Hutchison will represent Australia at the London 7s this weekend. Unfortunately at this stage of the World Sevens tournament there is no chance for Australia to finish in the top four, instead the team will try to build form for the upcoming Oceania Olympic qualifiers.

WATER POLO
One of our water polo stars Nathan Power has been plying his trade in Croatia for VK Jadran Split. His team competes in the Croatian Championship. However he is currently preparing to represent Australia in the FINA World League Super Finals in Belgrade, on 4 June along with UNSW-Wests premiership player Andrew Ford. Amy Ridge, who was part of the UNSW-Wests Killer Whales team who recently won bronze in the Australian Water Polo League, will also head to the World League for Australia - the women's competition begins on 4 June in Budapest. Ridge was in sensational form for the Killer Whales this year, scoring 43 goals for the season at an average of 2.26 per match, so she will be looking to take that form into the Australian team.

HOCKEY
UNSW Business School student Tim Brand is currently travelling with Kookaburras squad for the Hockey Pro League. While he didn't take the field in Australia's last match against Argentina, hopefully he will be named in the match day squad to take on Great Britain on 9 June.

NETBALL
Ben Lexcen scholar and UNSW Law School student Matilda McDonell made her debut for Giants Netball in the Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) recently. At only 18, McDonell is one of the youngest players in the competition. This weekend her team heads to the Sunshine Coast to take on 2017 and 2018 premiers the Sunshine Coast Lightning. In other netball news, UNSW alumna Marina Go has been appointed Chair of the inaugural SSN Commission for an initial three year term. 

AFL
2019 AFLW Giants best and fairest Rebecca Beeson will play her first VFLW game of the season for Hawthorn this weekend. Her return to VFLW will be much anticipated as the Hawks are yet to win this season, sitting in 11th place on the ladder after two rounds of competition.

CRICKET
The squads for the 2019-20 Women's National Cricket League were named this week and there has been a fair bit of movement at the station. Ben Lexcen scholar Carly Leeson has been named in ACT Meteors, defecting from the NSW Breakers. Meanwhile alumna Georgia Redmayne, the UNSW 2018 Female Athlete of the Year has moved from Tasmania to sign with the Queensland Fire. In men's cricket news, UNSW alumnus Usman Khawaja was lucky to be cleared of any serious injury after he suffered a ball to the jaw in a Cricket World Cup warm up match against the West Indies. Australia will take on England in their next warm up match over the weekend.