Aquinas College is celebrating sporting success in various codes this month, including gymsport, hockey and rugby.
The Aquinas 1st XI girls' team recently played Otumoetai College 2nd XI in a hockey final, which saw Aquinas emerge the victors with a two goal to one end result. As a result the Aquinas girls won the Samantha Charlton Cup. Victory was especially sweet given the team competed throughout 2011 without winning a single trophy. Winning this cup confirmed the vast improvements made by this squad.
Goals in the final match were scored by Georgia Childs (Year 11) and Natasha Collins (Year 9). Tia Robinson's (Year 11) tenacious work rate was rewarded with a Player of the Day decision.
Congratulations too to young Aquinas rugby players at Year Seven and Eight level.
Charlie Wood (Year 8) and Louis Grinrod (Year 7) were both selected for the Tai Mitchell Tauranga West team. Charlie Wood and Josef Schuler (Year 8) were selected for the U12 Western Bay Ellis Shield tournament, and Louis Grinrod was selected for the Under 45kg Goldfields team.
In gymsport, Marie Joret competed recently in the NZ Secondary School Gymsport Championship in Auckland. Her tumbling exercise was so well executed she achieved a gold medal.
Meanwhile, in college exchanges, Aquinas recently hosted Campion College in an annual exchange. More than 90 Year 9 and 10 students from this Gisborne College visited to play rugby, football, hockey, netball, basketball and volleyball.
The Aquinas competitors scored wins in boys' and girls' basketball and the girls' volleyball. Aquinas also scored convincing wins in both the boys' and girls' football matches, both the A and B team netball matches and a rugby 10s event.
Otumoetai
Otumoetai College was well represented with 38 Year 9 and 10 students assisting with the refereeing and umpiring at the East Cluster Primary day which hosted hockey, netball, basketball, football and rugby. Congratulations to those students who made it possible for this great event to proceed. We have had great feedback on their ability.
The Football 1st XI had a brilliant last game before going to Tournament with a comprehensive 5-1 win against top of the table Boys' College 2nd XI. Jamie Higgison scored two goals. Our Junior Boys football team had a great game in the weekend against TBC A, just losing 3-2. This was the boys' first loss of the season but was a fantastic game enjoyed by all.
Baywide Basketball was hosted at the fantastic TECT venue over the weekend. This was a great pressure tournament leading into premierships next week. Our Senior Boys team continue their good run, playing with confidence and only beaten narrowly in the final by 6 points. Cole Ebeling, back after a year off, is turning into a key member of the team well supported by Theo Johnson and Alex Schipper. Our Senior Girls showed good improvement beating Girls' College for the first time this year, securing 3rd spot. The Junior Boys grew into their games, lifting their intensity for this two day tournament. Finishing 4th, they are looking forward to the tough games expected at premierships next week. Congratulations to Jack Neale who has been selected into the development tour team for the Koru programme in January 2013 to Australia.
Our rowers have started well with an indoor event in Rotorua. The Under 17 girls of Zoe Stevenson, Jamie Lynds, Hannah Ouellett and Lauren Dance won their grade. Nick Pilbrow also achieved a 10 second improvement on his 2km erg, giving the older boys some serious competition. Kendall Hofland placed 4th and 5th on a 2km and 1km erg.
The WBOP Under 14s Rugby team for the Chiefs tournament has been selected with Mathew Kriel, Blake Ireland, Ben Hodgeson and Dylan McNeely.
Golfers Jack Tisch, Andrew Jackson and Chris Charlton will be competing at the NZ Under 19 Championships at the Waipu Golf Club next week.
Congratulations to all our athletes and a big thank you to our coaches and managers travelling to Winter Tournament next week. Teams going away are the netball to Auckland, Hockey Girls' 1st XI to Whangarei, Hockey Girls' 2nd XI to Auckland, Hockey Boys' 1st XI to Stratford, Football Girls to Palmerston North, Football Boys to Auckland, Basketball Junior Boys to Rotorua and the Girls' and Boys' Senior Basketball teams to Taupo.
Mount Maunganui
Mount Maunganui College was represented very well on Friday night netball finals night with our Junior A playing against Bethlehem College Junior A in the Collegiate Premier Division 3 Final. Mount College turned up firing and took it to Bethlehem right from the start. Mount College Junior A won their grade with a 35-32 scoreline.
MMC Rurus were also playing in the Collegiate Reserve Division 1 Final against Te Puke High Senior B.
A hard fought match from the word go, the Rurus found themselves one point down going into the second half. A few confident words from the coach and Rurus came away from the final whistle winners 34-25: A fantastic result for our hard working coaches Jodi Tod of the Junior A team and Jo Adlam for the Rurus. These wins takes the total to 4 division wins for MMC this season with teams Kauri and Karaka winning their Saturday divisions.
MMC rugby has had resurgence this year and we have had a record number of players who have made representative recognition: In the BOP U18s Max McLaren, Danny Kayes and Jackson Edwards; U16 A Squad Daniel Puschart and Paora Tipene; U16 Development squad Wiremu Tane, Pomare Tane, Bill Carter, Dylan Matthews, Josh Lasenby; U15 Team, Xavier Kaweroa, Dean Julian, Dallas Masters, Luke Horne, Brody Woods.
The U14 squad is Jake Cowdrey, Seren Marsh and Hamiora Bennett.
The boys' golf team of Bailey Smith, Tawera Williams, John Campbell, Jordan Golding and Josh Rookes are heading to compete in the National Secondary Schools Golf Champs in Waipu next week. The team won the BOP division for their place in the national final. Good luck to the team playing against NZ's top student golfers.
Winter tournament week kicks off around NZ next week and we have three teams competing: MMC 1st XI Girls' Soccer at home in Papamoa, 1st XI Girls' Hockey home at Mount, and MMCI Netball at UNISS North Shore. Good luck to all the teams.
Bethlehem
The BC junior school teams had a very successful Bay of Plenty badminton finals day. Our Girls' team of Clare Murray, Phoebe Cho, Jasmine Chin, Sunny Baik and Lucy Hopping won the gold medal in first division by winning all of their games against TGC, Trident, Whakatane and Western Heights. The Boys' B team made up of Leon Lim, Hamish Duncanson, Jaydon Collecutt, Hamish Miller and Luke Wallbridge, also won gold in the second division with wins against Whakatane, John Paul College, Taupo, Edgecumbe and Papamoa.
The Boys' A team had three convincing 6-0 wins against Whakatane, Taupo and Kawerau and advanced to the final against Aquinas. In a series of very close games, Michael Lewis lost narrowly in the singles, but combined with Garrick Du Toit to win the doubles. This meant that Phillip Cho and Dylan Downs-Hetet needed to win their doubles by more than six points in the final rubber. In a close game they went down 21-18, so BC had to be content with second place. These results mean that Bethlehem College won silver and gold medals in every section of the senior and junior divisions of the Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools competitions this season.
The Boys' 1st XI Football have had two good wins, beating Katikati 2-1, with Luke Davison the player of the day and also beating Otumoetai 1-0. In this game, William Jordan and Tom Rutherford were the players of the day, with Tom excelling in the goal and William scoring the goal with an athletic bicycle kick. Success also came to our hockey teams with the Boys' 1st XI Hockey team defeated TBC 2nd XI 2-0 and the girls beating Otumoetai 3-1. Nikki Furmage was player of the day.
By defeating Aquinas 40-32, the Open A netball team progressed to the division one final against TGC. It was a big step up for all the players who fought hard and were only down by one point after the first quarter. However, TGC were too strong and went on to win by a clear margin. The Junior A side also played in their division finals against the Mount College Junior A. The girls had a slow start, taking their time to settle into finals netball and although they finished strongly they had to be content with second. This is a huge achievement as the Junior A have never before made it past the semis before.
Next week, many of the top senior teams are heading to winter tournament week. Best of luck to them and to all of the Tauranga schools. Both the girls' hockey and netball have moved up to a significantly higher grade with the Open A netball girls competing in the Upper North Island Secondary Schools (UNISS) A grade for the first time, with their first game will against defending champions Mount Albert Girls' Grammar. The girls' hockey team play in Whangarei in the Marie Fry Trophy.
- Kelsey Randrup, sports captain
Tauranga Boys'
The 2nd XI Football side played the final game of our season. Otumoetai College started very well and before TBC had caught their breath, Otumoetai were 2-0 up. It soon became three. TBC began to string some passes together but we found it difficult to convert the half-chances we made.
The second half saw TBC play some better football and the team played with more determination. However, Otumoetai scored to make it 4-0. A great goal to Taylor Hough followed. The team changed their formation to try and press for more goals, but it simply was not our day. Otumoetai scored a late goal, and they were the deserved winners 5-1. It was a frustrating day for the boys, as things did not go according to the team plan. Taylor Hough and Ben Mountain played really well. However, it has been a great season overall, and the team has played some great football.
Finally to rowing, Tauranga Boys' College Rowing Squad has been busy yet again. The second and final indoor erg competition was held this past Sunday (26/8) at Western Heights High School in Rotorua. All of the boys again performed to their best and it ended up being a highly successful day. With all that has happened over the past week the squad managed to stay strong and receive some well-deserved results. The day started with three of our novices racing in the U15 2km race. From the three of them they received the silver and bronze. The novices showed just how much determination they have when they came away with gold, silver and bronze in both the novice 1km and novice 500m. As well as this they also won the U15 novice team event.
Moving on to the older boys, the U17/U18 squad came away with a few medals over four different events. Along with those medals were two team event trophies, won in the U17 and open age groups. A special mention to Jordan Parry, who now holds the NZ record in the 2km 15/16-year-old Lightweight category. He broke the record set two weeks ago by 0.8 seconds with a 6:32.4.
After a big day in Rotorua, Tauranga Boys' College came back with 16 medals, three team trophies and the cup for Best Boys' Secondary School. The cup is accumulative of points gained from both indoor erg comps and to gain this award is a great accomplishment that all of the boys should be proud of.
Tauranga Girls'
Winter sport is winding up for the year, but our girls have made sure that they go out triumphant. The Bay of Plenty Junior Badminton Championship Finals were held on the August 23, and Tauranga Girls' College fielded three teams.
The first team was playing in Division 1 and gained a second place, a very good achievement. The team consisted of Jordan Ross, Kahukura Carter, Jada Mataroa and Naomi Stewart. We also had two teams in Division 2 and they took out both first and second place. Team 1 was made up of Justace Tai, Eli Maumau, Mishaylah Ryan and Joedeci Ranapia, and Team 2 consisted of Taylor Manville, Zakira Ali, Sarfaun Tukaki and Maxine Hoete.
The netball finals were held on Friday night and many teams were victorious. TGC League 1 won the Collegiate Premier Division 1 after beating Bethlehem College Open A 44-31. They were undefeated for the whole season. The team consisted of Ngarata Delamere-Ririnui, Kirsten Mackay, Maria Togotogorua, Ngawai Tawa, Kiana Tawa, Jamie-Lee Prier, Simone Te Kani, Ariana Abbott, Marika Williams and Renee Penny, coached by Kahu Rauwhero.
Also undefeated for the season was the Junior A, beating Otumoetai Junior 1 39-30 to win the Collegiate Premier Division 2. The team was made up of Payton Silvester, Zealand Reeder, Ariana Moffatt, Mereana Kiwi-Griffiths, Ata Rauwhero, Tayla Turner-Paki, Aaliyah Thocolich, Emma Bain and Alescha Symes, coached by Lucy Whale.
Winners of the Collegiate Reserve Division 3 were the TGC Gold Diggers - Claudia Oldman, Alathea Lockett, Shannon Slegh, Stephanie Gunn, Kylie Wood, Maddy Scott, Tanieka Smith, Danniella Cassidy and Monique Walter. The Junior B were runners-up in the Premier Division 4, and TGC Dominators came second in the Reserve Division 2.
The football season also ended on a high note with the 1st XI winning the Western Bay of Plenty Premier Girls Division. The team consisted of Kate Heaphy, Jacinta Coleman, Sophie Stewart-Hobbs, Jordanne Bates, Whitney Banfield, Emma Cawte, Tayla Forward, Brittany Marshall, Sophie Johnston, Jaclyn Grant, Maddy Fryer, Rose Brettel, Jamie Carpenter and Hannah Paulini, coached to success by George Grant.
The 2nd XI also did very well, winning their nail-biting game against Mount Maunganui College 1st XI 3-2 on the weekend. This put them 4th in the same division, an extraordinary achievement as they are the only 2nd XI team in it, and only two points behind the teams in 2nd and 3rd place.
In Division 2a, the Junior A side came 2nd and the 3rd XI came 4th.
Last week the hockey teams did well as usual. The 1st XI beat Mount Strikers 1-0, Tauranga Girls' Seniors won their game against Otumoetai College 3rd XI 3-1, and the Juniors won 3-2 against United Girls.
The inline hockey team also won their game again this week, beating Matamata Junior Girls 6-4.
Congratulations to Makayla Daysh who has just been selected in the Junior Tall Ferns basketball team which will be competing in the Oceania Champs in September.