Who is October’s Waterford Sports Star

A little later than planned, its time to name the female sports person in Waterford that impressed most in the month of October.

Again it was another great month for female sports participants in Waterford with a number of people standing out in their chosen sport.

For the Maxol WIT Wildcats in the Women’s Premier (Basketball) League October was an excellent month.

While the month did not get off to the best of starts for the side as they lost 73-54 to DCU Mercy at the Mercy Gym in Waterford, the Wildcats had good performances from Jazmen Boone who finished the game with 24 points while Helena Rohan finished with 12.

The Wildcats got their first win of the league in the second round of games when they came from 28-26 down at half time to win 62-60 in Portlaoise with Jazmen Boone again finishing top scorer with 26 points while Helena Rohan finished with 16.

Game three for the Wildcats in October was a home game against Courtyard Liffey Celtics and resulted in another win for the Waterford side, this time winning 76-69 with Helena Rohan finishing top scorer this time around with 25 points and Jazmen Boone finished on 17.

Game four saw Maxol WIT Wildcats was an away game to Team Montenotte Hotel and resulted in a 68-65 defeat with Helena Rohan again finishing top scorer on 18 points, four more than the tally hit by Cathy Kavanagh who hit two more than Jazmen Boone.

The Wildcats last game in October resulted in third win (64-58) in Cork with Jazmen Boone hitting 22 points while Katie Fox hit 11 and Helena Rohan hit 10. Others to impress for the Wildcats in October included Sinead Deegan and Melissa Stone.

For Dungarvan Hockey Club October was also a very good month as they won all three of the games they played beating Clonakilty 1-0, Fermoy 2-0 and a comprehensive 5-0 win over UCC. In each of these games the Old Boro Club had a number of outstanding performances including from the likes of Freida Mcgrath, Lucy Donnelly, Laina O’Hare and Lisa Fitzgerald.

In Ladies Football Ballymacarbry won the Munster B Ladies Football Final beating Banner Ladies from Clare in the final with Waterford’s inter county players, Aileen, Mairead and Linda Wall, Sinead, Louise and Michelle Ryan as well as Karen and Michelle McGrath impressing once more and while defeat was their lot in the Munster ‘A’ Final against Cork side MouneAbbey the same players again impressed.

There was more success for Waterford however in Munster as Comeragh Rangers won the Munster Plate Final beating Cappaghwhite in the final 4-9 to 1-4 in Tipperary town. There was some excellent performances for Comeragh Rangers all round with Katie Murray in particular standing out hitting two late goals to secure the win.

It was an amazing month for Kilmeaden swimmer Shauna O’Brien taking at the Manchester International Swim as she broke Irish records three times over the weekend in a 25 metre pool.

Putting in some very strong performances at the competition, Shauna claimed records in the 50m and 100m fly events – breaking the Irish record on the 50m butterfly in 26:98, then again in the final in 26:76 and she went on to claim silver and another Irish record in the 100m fly, swimming into second place with 59:10.

To round off an outstanding weekend she claimed the bronze in the 50m freestyle in 25:99.

In Camogie it was a good month for both De La Salle and Lismore as they won important County Finals.

Lismore retained the senior final beating Saint Annes at Fraher Field. Aoife Hannon finished as top scorer for Lismore with 9 points while Caitriona McGlone hit 0-4 with Ruth Geoghegan, Shona Curran, Shauna Kiernan, Gráinne Kenneally and Nicola Morrissey impressing while for Saint Anne’s there was impressive performances from the likes of Jenny Simpson who hit five points, Pauline Cunningham, Zoe O’Donoghue and Niamh Rockett.

In the minor game that followed the senior game De La Salle beat Cappoquin to take a first title at this grade with Beth Carton, Aisling Madigan, Caoimhe Drohan, Courtney Healy and Taylor Healy all impressing while for Cappoquin Aisling Power, Roisin Uniacke, Aisling Moore and Lauren McGregor impressed.

The Waterford city side would later add the Junior County final to their roll of honour, again a first beating Ferrybank in the final.

So who is the person that stood out most in October. While there is some impressive performances across a number of sports, its hard to look past De La Salle Camogie star Beth Carton.

She has had a great 2015, breaking into the Waterford Intermediate Panel, winning League and All-Ireland medals, winning Minor and Junior County Finals and also winning a Soaring Star (Camogie All-Stars for those playing in the Intermediate and Junior Grades).

In the Minor County final win over Cappoquin she hit 4-7 of her sides tally of 5-15 a very impressive tally and in the Junior final recently she hit 3-8 of her sides 3-12 against Ferrybank.