The University of South Australia placed first in Badminton and Men’s Tennis in 2018’s SA Challenge.
The annual intervarsity tournament between students from UniSA, Flinders University and the University of Adelaide was a close competition, with UniSA finishing third overall on 15 points.
The University of Adelaide were the overall winners on 20 points, while Flinders University came second on 18.
An impressive 97 students competed for UniSA across nine different sports, held over two Fridays.
Outdoor hub was held in week one on Friday 4th May, with UniSA competing hard in a range of different sports.
UniSA’s Tyson Devine won the Men’s Tennis competition, but with the University of Adelaide winning the Women’s, UniSA placed second on a countback.
In both five-a-side Lacrosse and Beach Volleyball, UniSA was narrowly defeated in the finals, including by only one goal in Lacrosse, and finished second.
The Half Marathon Relay was a new event in the SA Challenge this year, and UniSA finished third around the Uni Loop, and in the Ultimate Frisbee competition.
In week two, an indoor hub was held on Friday 11th May, with three of the four sports held at UniSA’s brand new Pridham Hall facility at the City West campus.
Netball 5’s, Badminton and Basketball were the very first sporting events held at Pridham Hall, which was officially opened to the public three days later on Monday 14th May.
UniSA earned their first overall win in the SA Challenge in the Badminton, with the ‘UniSA 1’ team delivering an impressive standard of competition.
After a three-year hiatus from the SA Challenge, Basketball returned to the competition in 2018 where UniSA finished runners-up.
In both Netball 5’s and Squash, UniSA finished third.
Despite UniSA’s third place finish overall, it was great to see almost 100 students pulling on the blue and green and representing Team UniSA.
There will be more opportunities to represent UniSA in intervarsity competitions this year at the 2018 UniSport Nationals. Any students who are interested can check out our website for more information.
Written by Kirralee Thomas