Table Tennis
Courtesy of Athletic Council
It was all cheers and shouts when Daniel Kwan hit the game-ending shot that not only won him the match, but also his school’s second APAC table tennis title in a row. “It was a great relief since everyone was stressed from losing a doubles match that was very close and was pretty thrown off their game,” said Kwan. “I was pretty stressed too,” he added.
The boy’s table tennis team threaded the needle against HKIS at WAB, winning by a narrow one point. An unconventional tournament format meant that the six members on the APAC squad had to be split into two teams of three, playing other teams of three towards an aggregate school score in a best of five format. There was no bracket play, rather, teams accrued points by winning matches – one point per win and none for a loss.
As the tournament approached its eleventh hour, the combined SASPX teams had a one-point lead on HKIS. Playing against their Pudong counterparts, the team had to win at least one of their final two matches if they wanted to retain their APAC title. The team lost a reportedly pugnacious, and close, doubles match in which three players were given yellow cards for bad sportsmanship. It was up to Daniel to deliver the team their victory, and they were ecstatic when he did. “It is really hard to describe how excited I was when we won,” said Jon Shih, a junior on the team. “Especially after that toxic doubles match, I’m just so glad we won.”
That was the team event. There were also singles and doubles brackets, but this year’s team didn’t excel in either of those. Chris Shih and Myles Zhou, both seniors, finished sixth in the doubles rankings, and they “didn’t expect much more,” said Chris. Nonetheless, the team shifted the tides to work in their favor, even against better individual players. “We do not have players with the best individual skill,” said Chris, who also is this year’s captain. “We are strongest as a team, and I think our win for the school really shows that.”
The rest of the tournament typified a good experience for Chris. “Super performance from everyone on the team, it was much better than the coach’s expectations,” he said. “There was also a lot of laughter and positivity, and I will miss it next year for sure.”
The girl’s APAC followed an identical tournament format. In the team event they placed third, and they had some well-deserved singles and doubles results. Aily Nishioka, the senior captain of the team, had a remarkable fourth place finish in the singles event. In a surprising twist, all six of the players made it past their preliminary rounds in the doubles event, effectively making almost forty percent of the final playoff bracket SASPX. “It was really exciting when all six of our players made it into the championship bracket for doubles,” said Shannon Ooi, a sophomore. “It turned out to be our strongest event.”
While they were not as successful as the boys in the team event, by no means did they not perform well. “Everyone tried their best and played at their finest level, said Chu Chuan Wu, a senior. “Aily was also constantly there leading the team and motivating the players.” When they weren’t ping ponging balls across the net, the team glued well and spent the majority of their free time with each other. “We definitely had a lot of team bonding during the event,” said Chu Chuan. “During lunch, dinner, bus rides, and in the room.”
Leonard Lee
Forensics
Courtesy of Athletic Council
On Thursday, January 24th, SAS Puxi hosted the opening ceremony of APAC Forensics, kicking off a week of exciting debates, impassioned performances, and speeches that touched, provoked, and impacted. SAS Puxi went into the event with heavy expectations on their shoulders, being the defending APAC champions for the fourth year in a row. Moreover, the team went in with a certain degree of trepidation – the team lost 6 seniors last year, all of whom were experts in their field of performance.
"We had no idea what to expect going into APAC. In previous years, our team had been about equally strong across the board, but our team composition this year was almost entirely new," remarks senior Matt Song, with senior Marcus Khoo adding that "[they] stood on the shoulders of giants" in past years, but now had to face an uncertain competition without the alumni.
In spite of this, however, the Puxi Forensics team practiced endlessly and adapted, walking out of the tournament as champions for the 5th year in a row! Remarkably, the young team achieved great success with "at least one finalist in every category, and all three speakers broke to finals for Extemporaneous and Impromptu speaking," according to Matt Song. This was particularly impressive given that despite most members in impromptu being new to APAC forensics, all got into finals. These points were all fundamental in allowing Puxi to edge past Concordia to claim the championship title.
Particularly, junior Ted Chang shone, with him managing to place in Solo Acting despite having been "put out of his comfort zone" in an event completely new to him, according to Marcus Khoo. He also placed in the finals of Debate, and as 2nd best individual speaker in each event. Additional individual highlights include Marcus Khoo winning debate and placing second in impromptu, Annelise Vella placing in finals for both Original Oratory and Solo Acting, and Matt Song placing 3rd in Impromptu and winning the title of champion and best speaker in debate.
Marcus Khoo and Matt Song jointly swept through the debate tournament, winning the vote of every judge they presented to. In addition to these stand out performances though, Matt Song also remarks that "we retained consistency across other events as well, and every single one of our speakers had cause for pride in this tournament.” Although the team will be losing two seniors, (Matt and Marcus), this year's APAC has proven that the juniors and underclassmen have what it takes to continue to Puxi legacy of winning APAC. "It's a really really great thing to see the that the younger members of the team are rising up to the occasion, especially given that we lost a lot of specialists in events over the last couple of years," remarks Marcus. If this year's performances are anything to go by, we can be sure that SAS Puxi Forensics will continue to harness words and emotions to delight, entertain, and ultimately compete.
Evian Chai
SAS SWIM TEAM FINISHES STRONG AT APAC:
BOYS 3RD, GIRLS 4TH OVERALL
The SAS swim team delivered an impressive performance at this year’s APAC Swimming Championships, held at WAB. There were new records, top-place finishes, and personal bests abound on both the boys’ and girls’ teams.
The boy’s team finished strong in 3rd place. Freshman Rafael Gu delivered a truly outstanding performance, smashing previous APAC records in all five of his events; he currently holds the APAC swimming records for 100 free (49.79 seconds), 50 back (26.28), 100 IM (57.68), 100 back (57.03), and 200 free (1:49.49). “I felt like there were parts of my race that needed a little more polishing,” Gu remarks, “but overall I am proud of my times and performance.” Gu and juniors Nolan Liu, and Barron Han, and Brian Lung also broke the previous APAC record in the boys’ 4x50 medley relay, placing second behind the ISB team. “We all swam personal bests,” says Han. “ISB just beat us for the gold.” Other highlights include Liu’s first place finishes in 100 and 50 fly, as well as Liu and Han placing second and third respectively in 200 IM.
Courtesy of Athletic Council
The girl’s team also delivered a solid performance, placing 4th overall. Sophomore Annalie Yu broke her own APAC record for 50 back during the prelims, and went on to place second in the official event. Yu also placed second for 50 free and third for the 100 back event. In addition, sophomore Ava Romanelli, junior Jacqueline Cheng, and seniors Renee Pearce and Meilee Sharan came in third place for the 200 free relay. “We went beyond our expectations,” says Cheng. Other notable finishes include sophomore Emelie Edberg placing third for 50 breast and Yu, Sharan, Edberg, and senior Annie Chen’s combined 4th place finish in the 200 medley relay.
Beyond their times and placements, the SAS swim team is connected by their shared grit and perseverance, which has taken them far in their own performances as well as their support of each other. “When we’re walking to the blocks we can see and hear our teammates in the stands cheering us on,” says Cheng, adding: “I’m proud of the resilience of our team. Sometimes we do run into challenges…but we have the ability to reunite and encourage each other.” Gu agrees: “Even though our team was struggling to get a high ranking, we didn't give up and we kept on trying our best.”
Lydia Ying
Super APAC Basketball
Varsity Girls Takes 3rd Place, and Varsity Boys Finishes 7th
This year, Super APAC basketball took place at HKIS for boys and Concordia for girls, and both teams fought admirably in tough games to end the season.
Despite a finishing second in their group after the initial round robin, the Varsity Girls advanced to the semifinals with tough wins against worthy competition. In the first round of elimination, the team came out with a 46-45 win over SFS behind an explosive 15-point quarter from Alice Qin. In the quarterfinals, the Varsity Girls upset the defending APAC champions, SAS Pudong, after tremendous shooting performances from Kaitlyn Shi (5 threes) and Julia Markmann. Unfortunately, the team fell to Brent in the semifinals after Brent was able to pull away late in the 4th quarter. Even with the tough loss, they redeemed themselves in a 37-31 win against AISG to secure a third place finish.
Julia Markmann also became the all-time leading scorer for the SASPX Girls Basketball program, breaking alumni Candice Choi’s record after the third game of the tournament.
Although it was an imperfect finish to the season, the growth that the team underwent outweighed the end results. “Even though we started the season with many losses— at one point having a 7-game losing streak— we came back and didn’t stop playing.” Julia Markmann said. “The whole team improved and stepped up their game.”
“We lost in the semifinals, but we finished with a huge win” Julia concluded. “I’m glad to have been able to experience our mass improvement from the first game to the last game we played.”
Courtesy of Athletic Council
The Varsity boys started the tournament with an impressive 48-31 win over ISB in the round robin game, but fell to Brent to finish as a second seed in their group. After blowing out UNIS in a 55-24 win in the first round of elimination, the team unfortunately fell to HKIS in a 5-point loss in the quarter finals. The team had another tough 10-point loss against SFS to drop to the 7/8 game, but finished with a 27-point win against WAB to place 7th in the tournament.
The team obviously fell short of its goals, but it continued to play its hardest. “We kept on playing strong and finished each game with all our efforts.” Lucas Meyring said. “We went into each game with a positive mindset thinking that we are not going to back down from any challenge.”
The tournament was also an event that extended beyond the activities on the court. “Other than basketball, APAC was the perfect opportunity for team bonding.” Lucas explained. “I learned a lot about my teammates, not just as basketball players, but as people off the court, and hopefully our relationship will carry on through the future.”
The JV teams also experienced success in their end-of-season tournament. The JV boys finished first in JAPAC while the JV girls finished third.
Alice Qin
