Waterpolo: Double bronze for Tauranga U16s

Tauranga's representatives at the Under-16 National Waterpolo Championships last week.

The 2015 Under-16 National Championships came to a close on Sunday after five days of action for the 45 teams involved in 208 games across five Auckland venues.

For the first time in several years, the national championships were one competition, instead of being split into two divisions.

Tauranga A won bronze medals in the girls and boys finals with Marist Red winning both gold medals.

Tauranga A players Malia Josephson, Charlie Wood and Bae Fountain were selected in the tournament teams.

In the girls final, Tauranga A played North Harbour B and began well with Julia Kayes scoring two centre-forward goals to open up a 2-0 lead after the first quarter. Solid defence from North Harbour kept Tauranga at bay, but Grace Elisara scored a counter-attack goal for 3-0 heading into the halftime break.

Goalkeeper Bae Fountain was one of three Tauranga A players to make tournament teams at the Under-16 nationals. Photo / File

Claudia Morgan scored for North Harbour in the third to come within two, but Kayla Dew scored from distance to restore the three-goal buffer heading into the final quarter. North Harbour came back with two goals before Tauranga scored through Josephson to settle for 6-3 with 1:36 on the clock. A last-minute flurry from North Harbour took the final score to 6-5 in favour of Tauranga.

After watching the girls grab bronze, Tauranga A were out for the double against Auckland's Sea Wolf. Sam Wylie opened the scoring, wrapping a bounce shot around his defender and into the back of the net. Hamish Low scored from outside on a man-up play to head 2-0 up in the first. Sea Wolf got one back before Low scored again for Tauranga for 3-1. Tauranga's Charlie Wood scored three goals within 72 seconds in the third for a 6-1 lead heading into the long break.

Sea Wolf came back strongly and Tauranga held on to a slender 7-6 lead going into the final quarter. Wylie scored his second of the match to push Tauranga ahead to 8-6, but Kane Smith brought it back to one.

Daniel Dennehy scored twice for Tauranga to extend the lead to three with 1:23 left on the clock. Sea Wolf replied before George Williams clinched the win for Tauranga with a goal on 0:04 for an 11-8 final score and double bronze for the Bay club.