At the North Island secondary schools girls rugby sevens tournament held last Thursday and Friday, Tauranga Girls' College was 5th.
We had strong representation at the North Island secondary schools track and field event held on the weekend. Amy Robinson came first in the intermediate long jump and 4x100m relay, Abbie Goldie came second in the intermediate 100m and first in the intermediate 4x100m relay, Jessica Bitcheno came third in the intermediate 800m, Brooke Somerfield came first in the intermediate 4x100m relay and Samantha Bitcheno came first in the junior 4x100m relay and 3rd in both the junior 100m and 200m.
The Western Heights High School tournament was also held over the weekend. The hockey first XI came 3rd in their tournament while a football team hastily thrown together from the second XI, third XI and junior A came a creditable third, only losing 3-0 to national champions St Peters in the semifinal.
Twenty-three rowers competed at the Maadi Cup in Twizel last week. A couple of crews made A finals while others competed in B finals, with some girls competing in up to five events.
Bethlehem
Last week our senior A girls' volleyball team competed in the New Zealand secondary schools championship.
Bay of Plenty schools excelled and BC found itself playing Otumoetai in the semi-final. In a dramatic game the girls were 7-17 down in the fourth set and saved eight match points before winning the set, forcing the game into a fifth set. Otumoetai re-grouped and managed to win the deciding set by two points.
Unfortunately we then lost the play-off to end up fourth overall. Two BC students were selected for the tournament team - Beniece Douch for the second year and Molly Anning, who is in her first year of senior A volleyball. These two, with Sally Davenport, were selected for the under-19 New Zealand indoor volleyball squad, with Molly also selected for the under-17 age group and the North Island team.
Congratulations to the Bethlehem College first XI cricket team who finished off the season in first place in the Baywide competition.
At the North Island track and field championships held last weekend, Michael Booth came third in the senior boys 100m and was also in the winning 4x100m relay team. Matthew Connolly came fourth in the senior boys 400m in a personal best time of 50.17 seconds and was also in the winning 4x400m relay team.
Luke Davison won the senior boys high jump, came third in the 110m hurdles, third in javelin and fourth in the senior boys shot put with a personal best of 15.56m.
Sam Averill competed in the Marra sprint triathlon and won the under-15 grade and also won the major spot prize of a $500 Avanti plus voucher. Sam was also placed 10th in the Y8 boys national triathlon held on March 29. Daniel Johnston came second in the under-sevens at the Pahoia triathlon.
On Monday, BC hosted two visiting overseas schools. Hockey games against Maragon School from South Africa resulted in two good wins for us, with the boys winning 3-0 and the girls 5-0. The other touring side was Saint Peter's Lutheran College from Brisbane, who played our first XI football teams. The boys won 3-0 but the girls lost 1-0 in a hard fought game.
Finally, the Otumoetai under-15 football team, with Nathaniel Glen a key midfield player, competed in the Oceania finals. They qualified for the final after beating Manly, the NSW champions. Playing Keilor for the right to go to the global final, it came down to a penalty shoot-out and Otumoetai lost 4-3. - Kelsey Randrup (sports captain)
Te Puke High
With the summer codes coming to a close we all know that winter is fast approaching and with it brings a whole new season of sports.
Volleyball: We had the New Zealand secondary schools volleyball nationals in Palmerston North last week. Both teams played well and enjoyed the competition. Our boys beat their position last year and finished up 12th in division three, while our girls slipped a bit, also finishing 12th in division three. It was a hard week away but our students did really well.
Cricket: The boys played a tight game against our girls team on Saturday. They batted first and got 142-6 off 40 overs, with Mikaere Teki retiring on 50. They got their runs in the last over and were six wickets down. All the wickets were shared around. This wasn't enough to beat our amazing girls' team who ended up winning the game.
Waterpolo: Our girls finished off the season playing Aquinas College at Baywave. They played really hard but could not shake Aquinas from first position. Our girls ended up finishing second overall in the competition. Well done to our water polo team.
Western Heights tournament: Two of our winter codes started off their sports season at the Western Heights tournament which was held last Friday-Sunday. Our basketball senior boys and our football first XI both attended. It was a great warm-up for the boys and it emphasised just how much work they need to do before the start of the season.
Katikati
Summer sports are winding are up for the season and all our winter sports players are training for their season. Our junior girls volleyball team had their last game, finishing the season well.
At the New Zealand secondary schools open swim we took four students. It was part of the New Zealand schools triathlon at Lake Karapiro on a 1km lake course. Libby Bradley was fifth in the junior girls and Stacey Muir was 12th in the intermediate girls.
We have had our school tennis championships with some great tennis played. Hayley Nicol won the senior girls title and Michael Noble the senior boys. In the intermediate competition Jason Palmer won the boys and Stella Dobbs the girls. Juniors was won by Estelle Wallis and Matt Shanley. Our top tennis students are playing in the Thames Valley secondary schools championships this week, which is the competition between all the secondary schools from Matamata to Coromandel.
Katikati College hosted the North Island secondary schools wrestling and it was a successful day for our wrestlers. One of our Year 8 students, Tyler Corbett, has been selected to travel with the New Zealand junior team to America for four weeks for competition. Tyler left on Sunday so good luck to him.
Mount Maunganui
A large group of Mount Maunganui College surf athletes competed in last week's Australian surf life saving championships held on the Gold Coast.
Danny Kayes teamed up with ex-pupils Kodi Harman and Jordan Hills to win the under-19 beach sprint relay title. Another gold was won by Jackson Edwards and Michael Bryant in the under-17 ski relay. Michael's sister, Maia, picked up silver in the under-15 beach 2km race. The competition at the Australian championships is intense and to win a medal is just outstanding.
Our senior volleyball players competed in the New Zealand championships in Palmerston North. The depth of the talent we have at our college was indicated by the following students being selected to trial for New Zealand under-17 and under-19 teams: Franqui Leach, Tyla Welch, Emma Marumaru-Flynn, Stephenie Tuhura, Demi Hewitt, Paora Tipene, Nate Moore, Jackson Ellis and Reece Matier.
Our outstanding golf team won the Bay secondary schools title at Springfield Golf Club on Tuesday. Jordan Golding, fresh from winning the Omanu men's senior championships, shot 74 to be best gross, with Bailey Smith's 76 and Tawera Williams and Joshua Rookes contributing to the team's win. This team now goes on to represent the Bay at the nationals in September.
Congratulations go to Katie Smith and Sam Durrant who have been selected to represent New Zealand in the New Zealand triathlon team in the 16-19 age group at the world championships in Auckland in October. These selections come off strong performances in national sprint distance 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run at Kinloch, Taupo, and NZ secondary schools championships at Karapiro.
Tauranga Boys'
In cricket, Tauranga Boys' College first XI played Central CC and finished the 2011/12 season with a resounding win in the Lonestar Twenty20 final at Bay Oval.
Player/coach Mark Orchard won the toss and elected to bat first on a dry Bay Oval pitch. A solid opening partnership of 57 between Mr Orchard and Tom MacRury set the platform for a big total and Tauranga Boys' College never relinquished control from there. Some lusty blows from Mr Williams (teacher Charles Williams) towards the end of the innings and clever strokeplay from Alex Oakley left Central completely demoralised going into the break.
Tommy Clout, in his last match for the college, steamed in and bowled with pace that the Central openers could not connect with. Tom MacRury was also difficult to get away in the initial stages. Eventually the required run rate forced some risky shots and the wickets began to tumble. Henry Conway continued his fine form with the ball to pick up 4-13 off four overs in a man of the match performance. It was an emphatic win in the final to earn a $250 Lonestar voucher and only the third men's competition win for the college after wins in 1974 and 2009.
Tauranga Boys' College farewell another crop of fine cricketers this summer, namely Josh Dwight, Elliot Timoti, Cam Neal and Tommy Clout, and wish them all the best for their cricket careers. Tauranga Boys' College Cavaliers cricketers lost to Bethlehem College third XI.
On to football, on a blistering-hot Saturday afternoon the mighty Tauranga Boys' College travelled to Otorohanga for their first game of the season. The locals had come out in numbers with a strong crowd of 30+ in the stands. The whistle blew and both teams were keen to get early touches on the ball. The tackles were flying and the boys had been unleashing strong tackles all over the park. Tauranga Boys' College were looking good in the first minutes but their lack of experience in dealing with free kicks led to their first goal after 10 minutes. Although 1-0 down, the boys continued to be the better team. Unfortunately a long-range effort from Otorohanga sailed over our goalie's head for a soft second goal. After the break the lads came out playing the better soccer, but like the first half Otorohanga scored a simple goal from indecision at the back. Ahmad Zammit bundled the ball over the line with a cracking shot from two yards making it 3-1. The standout performance from George Tighe has to be mentioned.
Good luck this week boys with the first inter-school game of the year against St Kent's and then hosting AFC Fury at Southey Field on Saturday.
In motocross, Tauranga Boys' College took 26 boys to the Western Heights High School invitational meet in Rotorua. The team is one of the larger teams in the North Island with 34 registered riders. It was a very big event with 200+ riders from schools as far north as Kerikeri to Wellington in the south, 25 schools in total. Our best-placed rider was Cameron Smyth with second in the novice 85cc class. Shayden Candy placed third in that class in what was his first race, Max Emitt was fourth in the 15-18 years 125cc class, Simon Atkinson eighth in the 15-16 years 85-150cc and Seb Still eighth in the 13-14 years 125/250f class. There were a few riders with bad luck stories, with Connor Chew breaking his right tibia and fibula in practice which required surgery over the weekend. Evan Hawkless took a fall while challenging for second place in his first race and broke his thumb and Todd Van De Laar injured his shoulder in race two.
In volleyball, it was the national championships for the squad. Senior A won seven games and then had a semifinal v Western Heights High School. The game went 2 hours and the boys played exceptionally well, and deep in the fifth set had earned a match point with the scores 14-13. Unfortunately they could not finish the point off and Western Heights went on to win the game 16-14 and advance to the final, which they won comfortably.
At the secondary schools mountainbike nationals, results were:
Under-14 crosscountry: 3rd Cullen Browne, 8th George Payne, 11th Tristan Haycock, 32nd Darren Barnard.
Under-15 crosscountry: 15th Hemi Jones, 18st Harrison Mudgway, 20th Daniel Sinclair, 24th Michael Ellerington
Under-16 crosscountry: 13th Sean Keals
Under-14 hill climb: 5th Cullen Browne, 7th George Payne, 14th Tristan Haycock
Under-15 hill climb: 17th Harrison Mudgway, 18th Callum Hoare, 19th Daniel Sinclair, 21st Hemi Jones, 27th Michael Ellerington
Under-16 hill climb: 16th Sean Keals
Under-19 hill climb: 20th John Devries
Under-15 downhill: 9th Daniel Sinclair, 17th Hemi Jones, 27th Callum Hoare
Under-15 overall points: 11th Daniel Sinclair, 15th Hemi Jones.
Otumoetai
Hayden Lewis had a good result at his latest boxing competition in Turangi. In the welterweight 70kg grade he had a points win 14-4 and was very dominant. This follows up on another points win 13-6 at the Central North Islands in Rotorua.
The Waikato/Bay of Plenty athletics meet was held with the following standout results - Anna Tingey second in 70m hurdles and Ryan Patrick second in the 100m.
We had our first waka ama team compete at nationals last weekend. They raced in the 500m, resulting in a second place in the bowl event. Members of the team were Louise Borell, Caitlin Brown, Sevyn-Leigh Jackson, Tara Limbrick, Tapita Perawiti, Diamond Piwari and Kali Sinkinson.
Year 9 student Joshua Ryan competed in the 100km cycling flyer event between Rotorua and Taupo and completed it in 5hours3min.
Congratulations to Calum Chuter and Jack Mills who have been competing in the Billabong surfing series over the summer, finishing 11th and 16th respectively.
We enjoyed hosting Heathfield College from Melbourne for a warm up game at school prior to volleyball nationals. With six teams at the nationals it was a massive week in Palmerston North. Our best result was the senior A girls who secured their finals berth after a compelling semifinal against Bethlehem College. In a repeat of last year's final up against Tauranga Girls', the game was tense but a great display of the local talent that continues to come out of this area. We missed out, losing 3-1. The senior A boys had a tough quarter against eventual winners Western Heights and achieved a fifth placing. The B girls were ninth in division two and the B boys 14th in division two. The C girls won a silver medal in division four with the C boys coming 14th.
Paige Harris and Anna Tingey competed in the North Island secondary schools dressage championships last Friday, held at St Peters College in Cambridge. Paige was second in the 2.2 test with a score of 68 per cent and was 4th in the 3.3 test with a score of 61 per cent. Anna was fifth in the 1.4 test with a score of 73 per cent and 12th in the 2.2 test with 62 per cent.
Our swimming champs were held with the following results: Senior Boys: 1 Ben Houlton, 2 Hamish Treanor, 3 Connor Topp. Girls: 1 Holly Boyle, 2 Steph Capp, 3 Brittany Goodrick. Intermediate boys: 1 Jack Neal, 2 John Ward, 3 =Jacques Glover and Jack Boyle. Girls: 1 = Claudia Capp and Kelcy Ballantyne, 3 Maddie Ragg. Junior girls: 1 Rhianna Maxwell, 2 Georgia Hacker, 3= Jessica Gadsbey and Keeley Johns. Boys: 1 Damon Potts, 2 Josh Pickett, 3 Reuben Anderson.
Our elite swimmers now go onto the Bay champs.Georgia Hackerwon the under-15 division in the Ocean Series sand to surf 2.6km swim.