MOUNT MAUNGANUI COLLEGE
Weightlifting:
Mount Maunganui College Year 13 student Samara Wright has returned from her first International Weightlifting Federation Junior World Championships with a wealth of knowledge.
The championships were held in Suva, Fiji, and Samara learned a ton from being in such a high performing and competitive environment.
Competing in the 64kg class she made a valiant effort against some highly talented lifters from all over the world, managing to hit a 71kg snatch and an 88kg clean and jerk.
Samara's experience at the championships has improved her skills greatly and it was an amazing opportunity for her to do so.
For the rest of the year, Samara is planning to fit in a solid block of training as she prepares for the Olympic Weightlifting New Zealand senior nationals, which will be held in November 2019.
Beach volleyball:
Kylen Scholmann, a Year 9 student at Mount Maunganui College, is going to be joining the New Zealand Youth Men's Beach Volleyball team in their journey to compete in California.
Kylen was a late selection and he is training hard both indoors and outdoors to perfect his talents. This is an impressive achievement and Kylen is due to fly to California on July 5. They are due to play about five tournaments that venture through Pacific Palisades, Manhattan Beach, and up and down the coast.
Kylen and the team are looking forward to the experience, as are the parents who get to watch.
Other New Zealand volleyball representatives from Mount Maunganui College include Ben Blackwell in the New Zealand Junior Men's team, Maia Horlock in the Junior Women's and Matt Larsen in the Junior Men's beach volleyball side.
Rugby
The Mount Maunganui College 1st XV played their opening game of the 2nd Division last Saturday against Ōtūmoetai 1st XV. The Mount Maunganui team played with resilience and earned a well-deserved win with a score of 20-15.
Geordie Hoeata, Josh Hays-Jones and Brayden Hathaway, with captains George Robins and Preston Burgess leading from the front, had an impressive game. The boys are due to travel away to Ōpōtiki this coming Saturday, and are hoping to come away with another impressive result.
Other results earned by Mount Maunganui College teams include the under 14 Mount Maunganui College team, who beat the under 14 Trident team with a score of 56-5. The under 15 team had an unfortunate loss to Tauranga Boys' College, 60-5.
Our girls team played Katikati College last Monday evening at Mount Maunganui College. Our team had a convincing win and scored some runaway tries. The feature of the game was how well our girls tackled the Katikati players with excellent technique. Much credit must go to new coach Will Burnell who has had the girls working hard on the tackle bags.
