Nationals 2025 Wrap: Australian Championships
After the great success we’ve had so far at Nationals, we are now into the home stretch of the Australian Championships.
Triples
Congratulations to our VIC Women’s Triples team of Mel Allen, Kelly McKerihen and Lisa Phillips (Sandbelt Region) who played a number of nailbiting games to win gold. A fantastic start to the final stage of Nationals.
Our Men’s representatives Nick Wallace, Dale Verhagen and Mike Pearce (Mornington Peninsula) played incredibly well making it into a bronze medal playoff and ultimately finishing 4th.
Pairs
On Tuesday, November 25th, our pairs teams of Mary Paton and Peta Mattys (Ovens & Murray Region) and Peter Loe and Brad Pavey (Geelong Region) competed in Devonport.
Both teams claimed their first win in round 1 with the men winning 19-17 over SA and the women’s 12-6 over NT. Round 2 the women’s side claim their second win 15-11 and the men draw with TAS 10 all. A defeat in round 3 saw both teams competing in the bronze medal playoff.
Our women’s team fell to Tasmania to finish 4th overall. Congratulations to Peter Loe and Brad Pavey for taking home bronze medals with a massive 24-7 victory over the NT.
Fours
Our women’s fours team of Nics McKenzie, Courtney Benningon, Lisa Phillips and Kelly McKerihen (Sandbelt region) had an incredible day winning all 3 sectional games and earning a place in the final. An incredibly tight match that was square on the final end saw the VIC’s ultimately concede the gold to NSW in a 1 shot final. The team secured Australian women’s fours silver medals for 2025.
The men’s side from Mornington Peninsula region of Joe Turner, Steven Brindle, Frank Krslovic and Peter Twyerould (Mornington Peninsula region) fought hard winning 2 of their games, but were unable to secure a place in the finals.
Singles
An incredible day for our Victorian reps with Tyson Cromie and Kelly McKerihen both winning gold medals as the Australian Nationals Singles champions for 2025.
Tyson started the day well with two strong wins before facing NSW’s Cody Packer. Despite a narrow loss his earlier wins secured his place in the gold medal match which lasted a gruelling 26 ends to defeat WA’s Ben Leggett 25-16.
Kelly also had a blazing start winning both games comfortably before narrowly losing to NSW’s Brianna Smith 25-24. Like Tyson, her earlier wins ensured her place in the final against ACT’s Chloe Morrison eventually winning 25-18. This is a back-to-back title for Kelly who took out the 2024 Australian Championships Singles title defeating Kristina Van Neirop (née Krstic) 25-20. This is also Kelly’s second gold this week having taken out the Women’s Triples title on Monday (mentioned above).
Mixed Pairs
On Friday, November 28th, our mixed pairs representatives Kelly McKerihen and Ali Forsyth started with a draw again WA. Team VIC was in the uneven section meaning a bye for Round 2. In the final match up Kelly and Ali narrowly went down to NSW which saw WA take the section.
We recognise the huge effort of all Victorians who have represented us at Nationals over the past 19 days, as well as the incredible work behind the scenes from our coaches, managers, selectors and the Victorian ITO’s who officiated the events. Go Vics!
