SportsSports
Contents: Athletics Hockey Swimming Tennis Basketball Horse Riding Gaelic Football
Our Lady's Bower have a great Athletics Team who train regularly and compete in many competitions
Westmeath Cross Country
This season, again, brought many silverware to Our Lady’s Bower. Held in Belvedere, Our Lady’s Bower won 1st team in all races and minor team came 2nd
Connacht Competition
The Connacht’s were held in Dangan Galway. The Bower runners did very well in the harsh conditions with all competitors through to the All-Ireland finals.
All-Ireland
All-Irelands were held in Jordanstown, Belfast. Our girls did us proud with Kate Burke and Sive Brassil coming in the top 20
Track and Field
This year it was held in Dangan with each girl performing their best. Our relay team did especially well coming 1st and Claire Burke finishing 1st in her race and many other girls placed well.
Connacht
Schools Competition
Last
January Eimear Corry, Laura Griffin, Emma Fahy, Aoife Corry, Aine Mooney and
Naomi Mullins went to Leisureland pool in Galway to represent Our Lady’s Bower
in the Connacht Schools Championships. The girls arrived home having won both
Senior Freestyle and Senior Relay Medley relays along with excellent
achievements in individual events.
Aine
Mooney came 3rd in the 100 metre butterfly and Eimear came a close 5th
with the 100 metre breaststroke. Later Naomi and Aoife swam the 100 metre back
crawl with Aoife coming 2nd and Naomi 3rd. The last event,
the 100 metre freestyle saw all girls lining up. Eimear and Laura both had
excellent swims and qualified for the Irish schools, Emma came an extremely
close 2nd having lost out on 1st place by 0.04 seconds!
Aoife and Naomi battled it out in the Senior age group with Aoife winning gold
and Naomi following closely in 2nd place. All girls qualified to swim
in the National finals.
Irish Schools Competition
Our
Lady’s Bower team of Naomi Mullins(16), Emma Fahy(16), Aoife Corry(17) and
Eimear Corry(14) put our school on top of schools swimming, winning gold medals
in both the 4 by 50m senior medley and freestyle events at the Senior Schools
Championships at the National Aquatics Centre in February. The relay results and
the individual medal success of Emma and Aoife, gave Aoife her 4th
international cap, Emma her 1st sub 60 second 100m freestyle as well
as her first international cap. This reflects the dedication and depth of talent
among the Bower swimmers.
International
Swimming
The
WISE Schools Swimming International 2009 took place on the 14th March
in the National Aquatic Centre in Wales. WISE
stands for Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and England. Ireland selected a team of 40
swimmers from all 4 provinces. There were 4 from Connacht, 13 fron Leinster, 9
from Munster and 14 from Ulster. Emma Fahy and Aoife Corry from Our Lady’s
Bower were the only female swimmers selected from Connacht. Aoife was part of
the winning senior freestyle relay team while Emma’s team came 3rd
overall.
England
came first and Scotland came 2nd by a mere 10 points over Ireland.
This was a very close margin considering that Ireland had a relay disqualified
for a faulty take-over.
Congratulations
to all swimmers and their success over the past year.
Tennis takes place every Wednesday after school and the girls enjoy it throughly. They also use our State of the Art gym when the weather conditions are harsh. They are currently training for up and coming competitions.
Our
Lady’s Bower has a wonderful new state of the art gym which has really
contributed to basketball in Our Lady's Bower. Many schools have travelled to
play matches and take part in competitions here.
Senior
Team:
The senior team did very well last year but were unfortunate not to qualify for
the all Ireland play-offs.
Cadets Team: They enjoyed great success throughout the season but were beaten in there semi finals by the smallest of margins.
1st
Year Team: The
first year’s had an outstanding season winning the national league and then
going on to win the inter-regional final.
They
also qualified for the All Ireland playoffs in Limerick and did the school
extremely proud.
Our
equestrian team 2008/2009 had a great success for
the 1st time in a number of years. Both individual and team events
raised the bar hugely for future equestrian teams in the school.
Lucia
Stanley came 3rd in her individual competition out of over a hundred
other competitors. Both our novice and open teams competed well for the Bower,
with the novice team taking 4th and 5th place on both
outings. The open team also competed but unfortunately were not as victorious.
Teams consisted of:
Open Novice
·
Aileen
Hayes
Aoife Dunning
·
Naomi
Ruane
Therese Kelly
·
Caoimhe
Moore
Nessa Walsh
·
Lucia
Stanley
Ellen O’Beirn
Lucia
Stanley took part in the Irish schools Equestrian competition which was held in
Creagh equestrian centre in Ballinasloe. She led throughout the competition
until a rising wind knocked some of the jumps and the competition was forced to
finish in the indoor arena. She put in a great performance eventually finishing
in 3rd place.
Congratulations
to all involved and to Portwest for sponsorship of team jackets.
Hockey
Our Lady's Bower has always maintained a strong tradition in
hockey down through the years and it remains a major feature on the sports
calendar. Our Lady's Bower is represented in each of the various age
groups throughout the Connaught League.
Hockey is very popular in the school are it is a great way of building team
spirit and making new friends.
Season
2008/2009
Senior
Hockey: Last season was very successful with the seniors getting to two
finals, the Palmer Cup and the Costello Cup. There was fantastic hockey played
and they managed to secure second place in Connacht.
The
senior team this year is training very hard and are eagerly anticipating the
Palmer Cup after Christmas. Good Luck Girls!!
Junior
Hockey: Last year the junior hockey team qualified for the semi finals of
there competitions but were unlucky to narrowly miss out on a place in the
final. They are doing very well and there dedication is really paying off.
2nd
Year Hockey: Last year the second years showed great skill and
determination on the hockey pitch but were unfortunate not to have won a trophy.
They have been training very hard again this year and have got off to a good
start.
1st
Year Hockey: The two first year teams did extremely well in there
competitions last year. They completed a season unbeaten but unfortunately
conceded a goal in a very tight final.
First
year hockey always proves to be extremely popular in the Bower and this year is
no different with enough numbers to field three teams.
We
have a very dedicated coach who is very enthusiastic and believes in enjoying
and promoting the game whether we win, lose, or draw.
Best
off luck to all the hockey teams this year.
Our Lady’s Bower is very proud of our Football teams starting from U-14, Junior and Senior
2008/2009 Season
Seniors
These girls did well and reached the Leinster quarter final and lost by a very small margin to Bagnelstown.
Juniors
Our junior team did extremely well and was the highlight of our Football Season winning the LEINSTER FINAL!! A great achievement by the girls and a very well done to player of the match Jennifer Byrne!
U-14s
A great interest from the new 1st years. These energetic bunch preformed excellently in the mini-sevens tournament.
Coaching Course
Our lady’s Bower was one of 2 schools in Leinster who were nominated to take part in a coaching course. Twenty TYs took on this coaching course and really enjoyed the experience. Each week they went out to different primary schools around Athlone and coached the 5th and 6th class girls teaching them new skills and basic rules in Gaelic Football
