Local Ballina Boy wins silver medal in the East Coast Challenge Waterpolo Tournament
Ballina’s Dane Mortimer, competed last weekend for the Queensland U14 A team in the East Coast Challenge Tournament pulling off a silver medal. Dane is following in the footsteps of his older brother Luke who was selected in Australian schoolboys team earlier this year. Dane, an Xavier Catholic College student plays waterpolo at Alstonville and was selected with a number of his team mates in the Queensland State Squad at the Queensland state championships last December. After 3 hectic months of travelling to Brisbane 3 times a week Dane secured selection in the Queensland A team. The A team finished top of the ladder going into the final being undefeated in the round games. Although defeating NSW A in the round games 5-3 they missed a few cruical goals in the final going down to NSW A 9-6.
Two of Dane’s Alstonville team mates, Jack Barratt and Nick Stanek played at the tournament for the Queensland B team. This team entered the tournament as a development team made up of 12 first year players and 2 larger positional players. They exceeded expectations playing off for the Bronze medal with the NSW B team. They put up a good fight and were unlucky in losing 6-5 in the last minute of the game through a penalty goal. Nick, who is from South Ballina attends Astonville High School and has only been playing waterpolo for one year. Jack Barratt from Alstonville is a student at St Johns College Woodlawn.
Photo: (L-R) Nick Stanek, Dane Mortimer, Jack Barratt
