IN HER first year competing for St Francis College at state level, Tess Staines has brought home a silver medal.

Tess, 12, represented the Wagga diocese at her inaugural NSW Combined Catholic Colleges (CCC) state athletics championships on September 12.

However, there were no nerves for the year 7 student who has competed at state level for Little Athletics and at primary school.

Competing in the under 13s javelin, Tess stepped up to produce a personal-best throw of 28.99m to secure silver, falling short of gold by just 4cm.

However, she was more than happy with her performance, producing her best-ever best result in javelin.

"When I looked at the program, I went in ranked second," Tess said.

"I had thrown against one of them before, the girl who came first. She won Little A's."

Tess' preparation was less than ideal as she was also carrying a knee injury.

"I was playing league tag and got tripped and it is still giving me a bit of grief," she said.

St Francis had a team of 10 students from year 7 to year 11 representing the diocese at the carnival, with a number achieving personal-best results.

The St Francis team also featured Evie Morrison, Jacob McDonell, Jess Murphy, Bulou Baravilala, Trent Granger, Brianna Pilon, Matthew Gaynor, Dylan Vardanega and Callum Hislop.

Tess also qualified for the 100m and 200m sprints, but was taken out of her comfort zone, which affected her times.

"I had to use blocks in the 100 and I've never used them before so I didn't know what to do," she said.

"People say I am quick enough off the start without them."

In another personal achievement, despite following in the footsteps of four older brothers, Tess showed them up by being the first to bring home a medal from a school state carnival.

She indicated she would nominate to compete at All Schools, which combines athletes from public, private and independent schools.