ONE of Tamworth's fastest-rising sports stars has been selected to represent her country later on this year.
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Tamworth High Year 11 student Mikayla Gross has earned a spot in the Australian Schoolgirls water polo team.
The selection comes after the 17-year-old put in a stellar performance for the NSW Combined High Schools (CHS) team at the Australian All Schools Championships.
"To be honest, I was over the moon when I heard my name read out in the side," Gross told the Leader.
"Going into the carnival, I was hopeful I might get selected but not overly confident.
"But when they read my name out I was a mixture of excited, happy and emotional."
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Having played water polo for the past six years, Gross said the selection was the highest team honour she'd received.
"Wearing the green and gold while representing Australia has always been a big goal of mine," Gross said.
"You never really know if you are ever going to get there, but to know that I will wear the green and gold is very exciting."
Helping her team to a silver medal at the Australian All Schools Championships, Gross proved to be a vital cog in the team's offence, scoring their first goal in a 7-3 grand-final loss to CIS.
"I have been in the CHS team for a few years now, so I consider myself to be a bit of a leader within the team," Gross said.
"I'm also the only left-handed player, so I tend to take a lot of the roles on the right side of the pool.
"We had a really good carnival, we all played really well and to take home a silver medal was a really good effort."
While yet to be confirmed, the Leader understands the Australian Schoolgirls water polo team may be in line for a series of test matches against New Zealand later in the year.
"They haven't really told us what we will be doing at this stage," Gross said.
"But if it is a test match series against New Zealand, that would be fantastic.
"In the meantime though, I will be taking a week off to rest up from two straight weeks of carnivals before getting back in the pool, getting back into training and getting ready."