Seven sports teams comprised of 70 students from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Albury-Wodonga, Wagga Wagga and Bathurst campuses have performed well at the East Coast Challenge (ECC) - University Games staged in Sydney from Sunday 6 to Wednesday 9 July. CSU entered men’s and women’s hockey teams, two men’s and a women’s water polo teams, a women’s netball team, and a rugby league seven-a-side team. Mr Nik Granger, a CSU student support officer and the Team Manager, said all the CSU teams performed strongly in the eleven-sport one thousand-competitor Games. “The women’s netball team, made up of Bathurst and Albury-Wodonga students who had never played together before, convincingly beat all opposition to win the ECC championship. The hockey teams continued their dominance of the University Games with the CSU women’s hockey team becoming the ECC champions for the third year in a row, while the men’s team won the bronze medal. The men’s number 1 water polo team dominated the competition and was undefeated to win gold, while the men’s number 2 water polo team won the bronze medal. The rugby league ‘sevens’ team of students from Wagga Wagga and Bathurst Campuses won the silver medal. The women’s water polo team was unplaced in their first time in the competition. It is a testament to our students’ attitude to competition against much larger universities that CSU placed fifth overall, and again won the ‘Spirit Award’ as it did at the 2007 Australian University Games,” Mr Granger said.