Jonathan Drapeau helped the HKIS baseball team to victory.At the weekend, four schools from Hong Kong and the mainland competed against each other in four sports in a bid to win the China Cup.
Held from September 18 to 21, the Season One tournament saw teams from the International School of Beijing (ISB), Shanghai American School Puxi (SASPX), Shanghai American School Pudong (SASPD) and Hong Kong International School (HKIS) vied for both junior varsity and varsity titles.
Baseball
The hosts, HKIS, took the China Cup championship for both varsity and junior varsity baseball. The HKIS varsity boys team narrowly edged out SASPD in their first game, 6-5. They went on to score convincing victories over SASPX and ISB, 14-4 and 18-0, respectively.
In the final, HKIS met ISB to play for the China Cup. For the HKIS, Zachary Fried started off with a triple and Freddy Marsh hit a home run in the first inning, setting the team up for their 11-1 victory.
The HKIS junior varsity team also won all four games, securing their title with an 8-1 win against SASPX in the final.
Tennis
All four tennis championship trophies stayed with the hosts, HKIS. The varsity boys, with star players Jackie Tang and Arthur Chau, ended with a score of 18, securing a clear victory against SASPX (6) and ISB (3). The varsity girls did equally well, led by Sabrina Woll and Jacinta Chen. Their score of 17 put them ahead of SASPX (10) and ISB (1).
On the junior varsity level, the HKIS boys also scored 18, beating SASPX (8) and ISB (1). The HKIS girls secured their title win with a score of 14, beating SASPX (10) and ISB (3).
In the past eight years, HKIS have won 33 of the 38 China Cup tennis championships.
Volleyball
Hosted by SASPX, the volleyball championships were hard to predict.
The varsity boys' trophy went to SASPD after a 3-1 win against HKIS. The SASPD varsity girls also beat HKIS in the final.
In the junior varsity category, ISB took the title with a 3-0 win against HKIS in the final. But HKIS hit back when their junior girls, led by captains Pheobe Chen and Elizabeth Fan, won their first volleyball championship in several years with a final score of 3-1 against SASPX.
Rugby
Up in Beijing, the skies were clear at ISB for the rugby championships.
Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) joined the tournament, and will also play in the Asia Pacific Activities Conference (Apac), to be hosted by HKIS next month.
Unfortunately, injury marred the China Cup rugby games this year, and the varsity boys championship had to be postponed after Michael Pusack of HKIS suffered a serious fracture which led to surgery on Sunday night. HKIS coach Ashley Billington said on Monday that Michael was recovering well, and would return to Hong Kong after working with a physiotherapist.
The HKIS' game against WAB at next month's Apac will act as the boys' varsity championship game for the China Cup.
In the girls' varsity section, SASPX took home the trophy with a 5-0 win against HKIS.
But HKIS were back on top with the junior varsity boys, who beat ISB 24-0 in the final.
WAB secured a win with their junior varsity girls' team, topping HKIS 15-0 in the final.