Hockey
8 July, 2026
Wimmera juniors test skills at JSC
Six players and one coach from the Wimmera Hockey Association participated in the Victorian Junior State Championships in Melbourne over the weekend.
Representing the North West Lightning zone, along with other players from the Sunraysia, North Central, Hockey Central Vic, and Goulburn Valley hockey associations, the players got to play alongside and against some of the best underage hockey players in the state.
The nine zone teams in each division were divided into two pools, A and B, and after each opponent within the pool had been played, the top two in each pool progressed to Pool C, which would play off for the title, and the remaining teams made up Pool D to play for the lower positions.
Horsham’s Holly Di Pietro lined up with the Lightning Under 14 Girls’ team, which enjoyed some mixed results. They started the tournament confidently, drawing both of their games on Friday.
Their first defeat came on Saturday morning against the North West Metropolitan Tigers, who would go on to top the pool and finish runners-up.
An eight-goal victory over the Gippsland Bulls, in which Holly scored one goal, followed by a narrow loss to the Western Wildcats, before a confident six-goal defeat of the West Vic Eagles.
Their tournament concluded with a two-goal win in the fifth-place play-off against the Wildcats.
Under the guidance of Horsham coach Paul Mackereth, all three Wimmera representatives in the Lightning’s Under 14 Boys team were amongst the goals.
While the team began the tournament with three losses, Jonas Beattie scored their first goal of the weekend in their loss to the Sharks.
James Mackereth scored their only goal in a loss to the Tigers, and Barrett Clark was one of six who scored in their first win, which was against the Bulls.
A loss and a draw in the final two pool matches saw them finish in fourth place on the Pool D ladder to earn a rematch with Eagles in the 7th-Place Play-off match.
As with their previous encounter, this match ended in a one-all draw, with James Mackereth scoring the goal.
The Lightning’s Under 16 Girls team, featuring Hannah Dixon from Yanac, started with a one-all draw with the Flames but then suffered losses to the Sharks and North West Tigers.
Their only win was a three-goal defeat of the Gippsland Bulls on Saturday afternoon.
against the Flames, they suffered another narrow loss by just one goal.