St Mary’s University Takes Victory at Annual West London Varsity

On Wednesday 26^th March, St Mary’s University, Twickenham became champion of this year’s West London Varsity competition against Brunel University. The annual competition has been running for several years and sees students from the two institutions compete against each other in a series of sporting events. Until now, Brunel has been undefeated in the competition, but this year the St Mary’s team took the title of West London Varsity Champions. Held at various locations across St Mary’s Strawberry Hill and Teddington Lock campuses, teams joined together to represent both institutions in sports including futsal, rugby, indoor rowing, table tennis, netball, basketball, cricket, hockey, volleyball and athletics. Around 2,000 students and members of staff joined together to support the teams throughout the day and live coverage of all the events was made available on St Mary’s student-run radio station, SMUC Radio. After several tense games, St Mary’s took the title with a final score of 15 - 11 and the trophy was handed to Athletics Union President Pietro Palladino. Pietro said, “Today marked an extremely proud moment for me, becoming the first AU President to lead St Mary’s to the title. “More than nine months planning went into this event and everything ran smoothly. It is a great achievement for everyone here, the players, the staff and the spectators who were present throughout every fixture, and they should be proud of what we have achieved. Our sense of togetherness enabled us to win the trophy for the first time!” The festivities continued later on in the week at St Mary’s annual Sports and Societies dinner, which was held at nearby Twickenham Stadium. The event celebrates all of the sports clubs and societies offered at the University, with a number of awards for student achievement and contributed handed out on the night. 2014 Winners of the Sports and Societies Award:

• SIMMSport Coach of the Year – Sammy Jo Sherwood
• Club President of the Year – Laura Ash, Women’s Rugby Union and Ashling Carey, Women’s Gaelic Football
• Coach of the Year – Richard Kite, Weightlifting
• Sportsman of the Year – Richard Goodman, Athletics
• Sportswoman of the Year – Sophi Santillo, Karate
• Sports Team of the Year – Athletics Cross Country
• Sports Club of the Year – Badminton
• Society of the Year – Cheerleading
• Outstanding Contribution – Zander Lavall