Debutant Luke scored a fine 41no and Bethlehem College reached 188 for 9. Tauranga Boys' batted steadily, but resolute bowling from Dylan Wadsworth (2/18 ), Dylan Ramohitaj (2/28), Patrick Davenport (2/23) and debutant Matthew Davis (2/12) saw Bethlehem College to victory by 29 runs.
Basketball: Josh Dumper spent 10 days in Australia over the holiday break playing basketball for the Under-17 New Zealand Development team competing in the Pacific Coast Slam Tournament. They finished third.
Golf: Madison Gartner played in the Kaimai Golf Classic, finishing a creditable sixth in the girls' nett competition.
Netball: Paula Muller and Kelsey Randrup, our 2012 sports captain, were in the WRAS netball team that went to Australia and participated in training and development with other Australian girls.
Surf lifesaving: In the Eastern Region senior championships held over the summer, Jessica Miller was very successful. She was first in the Under-19 surf race and board rescue, second in the Under-19 board rescue, third in the Under-19 ironwomen, open surf race and Under-19 surf teams events. In the junior championships other students also did well. Devon Bowdler won the Under-14 girls beach relay and was third in the girls beach sprint. Daniel Miller was a finalist in the Under-13 boys surf race, diamond, run, swim, run, and board races. Charlotte Wyatt came fourth in the Under-11 girls diamond race, surf race (board) while Cameron Relay and Laura Wyatt were second in the Under-13 girls beach flags.
Swimming: In January, some students participated in various open water swim competitions. In the Round the Mount Ocean Swim 4km event, Jessica Miller won the open women's category, eclipsing the second place finisher by a huge five minutes. She also won the Bridge to Bridge race and Blake Horne won the Under-14 boys race. They repeated their successes in the Team Shorebreak Ocean Series, where Charlotte Wyatt was second in the Under-14 750m girls event and Daniel Miller was second in the Under-14 750m boys section.
Swimming: In Hamilton, William Spear gained a gold for the 200m fly, bronze in the 50m free and under-14 boys 200m relay, silver in the 50m and 100m fly and 400 IM. At the Blue Lake multi-sport weekend, he was second overall and won his age group for the 2k swim and at Taupo national open water swim, he came second in his age group for 5k. During the holidays, he also swam in the Victoria State Champs in Melbourne.
Mount College
Surfing: Our surfing stars have been out in force with the first event of the Billabong Grom Series held at Mount Maunganui. In the Under-16 boys, year 9 student Kehu Butler won the title for the first time in this age division with a score of 15.47 - a lead of 3.9 from the second place surfer. Kehu had finished second in the Under-14 boys division earlier in the day and was determined to push himself harder in the Under-16 division. Also having stellar performances were new students to MMC; Raiha Ensor and Maaia Reid-Bennett, who finished first and second respectively in the Under-14 girls final. William van der Beek was fourth in the boys Under-12 final.
Beach Volleyball: The season has kicked off with the secondary school age group beach volleyball held last weekend at the Mount beach, where Perry Preston and Fletcher Swann won the silver medal in the Under-16 division behind Campion College, who they had beaten early in pool play. It was a great display of beach volleyball skills from all of our teams that competed in this fast developing sport. Perry and Fletcher also won the North Island age group beach volley champs over the holidays.
Canoe racing: Congratulations to Taris Harker and Ben Cochrane who were selected during the holidays in the NZ Under-18 team canoe racing team travelling to Sydney at the beginning of March for an international competition. Taris is heading away at the end of the month and has been training hard out for this event daily - we wish him luck. But due to other commitments, Ben has turned down the opportunity. The New Zealand canoe racing nationals are being held this weekend at the Blue Lakes.
We also welcome new New Zealand rep Kaydi O'Connor Stratton in canoe slalom racing. Kaydi has been named in the NZ Under-23 team travelling over to Europe this year, but she may have to turn down this trip. It was a huge effort to have gained this selection. Her results have been outstanding with a host of placings in Under-16, Under-18 and Open events raced in Australia and NZ over the holidays.
Surf Lifesaving: More than 60 of our students and staff are involved from October through until April each year in volunteer lifeguarding roles, surf sport, coaching and paid guard jobs. Our students have the upcoming Under-14 National Surf Lifesaving champs from Thursday February 21st to Sunday 24 at Mount Main Beach and then the senior and masters nationals from March 8-10 March also on Mount Main Beach. Good luck to all those competing.
Otumoetai College
Beach volleyball: Congratulations to the 30 teams (60 athletes) who represented Otumoetai College at the NZSS Beach volleyball nationals. In the semifinal of the Senior Boys our second seeded Oats pair of Jack Boyle/Cameron Ragg reaped the rewards of a committed summer of beach volleyball with an excellent win against our No1 seeds Daryl Lewis/Liam Matheson. Advancing to the final of the Senior Boys grade, reputations stood for nothing against the experienced Fullerton /McAdam (TBC).
Cameron and Jack continued their good run with a spectacular display of skills, winning the first set 21-17, and they had match point in the second set when a technical delay caused the momentum to shift and they lost the set at 20-22. The 3rd set was dominated by TBC 15-7. Daryl Lewis/Liam Matheson secured a bronze medal in the Division. Our No1 seeds in the Senior Girls, new pairing Abbie Meredith/Claudia Richardson, outperformed their expectations in reaching the semifinals of this hard-fought grade. Their quarter-final against the strong Mount team was won 17-15 in the third set.
They only had a 10-minute break before their semi against the No1 seeds which was a tough game. Abbie and Claudia played well but were just not strong enough to take it out. Our junior girls Abby Thompson/Courtney Oliver took out the gold in the Division Two.
In junior girls Div One, Emily Farron and Kahla Tyson won the bronze medal game over Bethlehem 21-18, 21-12. Our junior boys also had two quarter-finalists from Otumoetai in Jack May/Joseph Young and Isaiah Duncansen/Jayden Bradley - no other school could boast this achievement.
Rowing: Our rowers have had a busy time over the summer holidays attending their annual school camp at Lake Karapiro in early January and competing at two major regattas. The Dewar Shield Regatta held at Blue Lakes was a successful weekend with great results from all crews. The most recent regatta, Cambridge Town Cup, was the biggest regatta ever held in New Zealand with over 2100 athletes. This makes progression into the finals difficult but our crews still had outstanding results.
Hamish Mowat and Steen Hemmingsen placed sixth in the Under-15 double and Dylan Ngatai and Nicholas Pilbrow came home second in the B final of the Under-16 double.
Jackii van der Velden, Olivia Admundsen, Zoe Stevenson and Courtney Dyer, coxed by Suraya Thomas, placed second in their B final of the Under-15 quad while the Under-16 quad of Suraya Thomas, Jamie Lynds, Lizzie Coughlan and Hannah Ouellet, coxed by Courtney, finished seventh. Jackii and Zoe had an outstanding race to continue their form in the Under-15 double, coming home second. Rosie van der Velden and Kendall Hofland combined with two other rowers to place fourth in the Women's coxless quad. The girls continued their form as they made finals in all their double sculls and Rosie finished the day to come home fifth in the B final of her single.
Cricket: Our boys teams are under way with three teams competing. The 1st XI played Aquinas with Christian MacDonald top scoring with 74 runs, followed by Julian Bradley with 49 runs. This wasn't enough to take the win but a good settling in game for these keen athletes. The 2nd XI had an easy win over Katikati 2nd XI.
Tennis: The massive junior club day at Otumoetai Tennis Club was held last weekend. Dion Reed was placed second in the Under-16 singles and Millie Schuler was second in the Girls Under-14s and Tia Tarau second in the Under-14 doubles.
Netball: Olivia Young was selected for the Waiariki Maori Under-15 netball team which is representative over a large area of Bay of Plenty. Congratulations.
Tauranga Boys'
Cricket: TBC 1st XI vs Mt Maunganui TBC 157 all out, Mark Orchard 77no, Mt Maunganui 161 for 4, James Boyd 2/27, Mark Orchard 2/24. Unfortunately, our hopes of Williams Cup success have been dashed with two rounds to play. An anchoring innings from player/coach Mr Orchard could not salvage a poor batting effort and 157 was never going to be enough. One pleasing aspect was the approach of James Boyd and Thomas Wakelin at numbers 10 and 11, which took our total from 91 for 8 to 157 all out. The four overs remaining when we were dismissed could have been crucial.
None of our pace bowlers were allowed to settle by the Mount batsmen. This brought James Boyd to the bowling crease early with his leg spin. He once again proved a difficult prospect for opposition batsmen as initial aggression reverted to a more circumspect approach.
Beach volleyball: This year's NZ Secondary School Beach Volleyball Champs saw a record number of teams entered. Day one started well for TBC with all four teams in the senior boys division qualifying for the final 16 pool games played on Sunday morning, where three TBC teams qualified for the quarter finals.
Unfortunately, Joseph Winstanley and Tom Mabbott were eliminated from the top eight after a count-back on points.
One of the quarter-finals saw two TBC teams pitted against each other, where Caleb Aperahama and Tom Reid beat off Zac Brown and Max Schroder to claim a spot in a semi. In another quarter-final, Brad Fullerton and Burton McAdam comfortably beat a team from Nelson.
These results saw Caleb and Tom play Brad and Burton in one semifinal. Tom and Caleb took the first set playing some smart volleyball before Brad and Burton stepped up their game to narrowly take the second set, then the third, to secure a place in the final. Tom and Caleb were finally placed fourth after losing out to Otumoetai's Liam Matheson and Daryl Lewis.
The final was held on centre court on a scorching Sunday afternoon with a tricky offshore wind to contend with.
Brad and Burton started the final slowly losing the first set through consistent play by Cameron Ragg and Jack Boyle from Otumoetai. Trailing by a handful of points in the second set, they clawed their way back to level the score.
Taking the second set gave Brad and Burton valuable momentum and confidence, which they used to win the third set and become the NZ Secondary School Beach Volleyball Champions. All the teams should be proud of their efforts, as this was an outstanding result for TBC at a national event. Some boys will be back next year having gained valuable experience from this tournament.
Sailing: Congratulations to Sam Barnett Yr 12, and his sailing partner Zak Mertons from Otumoetai College, who won the 420 North Island Championship which in Napier last weekend.
Tauranga Girls'
Rowing: Our rowing girls went off at the end of last week to the North Island Club Champs and two girls came back with medals. Huia Ackerman and Laura Perry won a bronze medal in the Under-19 Double. They will now travel to the national event this weekend.
Athletics: The Porritt Classic was held on February 9 in Hamilton. Amy Robinson placed third in the open long jump and successfully broke the New Zealand women's Under-16 and Under-17 records in the 300m hurdles. Jessica Bitcheno also competed and was second in the 1500m schools race.
Beach volleyball: We had quite a few of our girls competing over at the Mount Main Beach last weekend at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Beach Volleyball Championships. In division one of the junior grade, Emma Bain and Kiana Tawa won the gold medal. In division two of the junior grade, Georgia Coughlan and Selena Wright won a bronze medal.
In division one of the senior grade, a silver medal was won by Alice Bain and Alex Lawrence after losing their final to Rangitoto. In division two of the senior grade our girls were very successful, with Marie Hoffman and Sophie Te Whaiti claiming the gold medal and Michelle Prendiville and Frances Davies winning the silver.
Te Puke HighCricket: Our cricket team played their first game on the weekend against Tauranga Boys' 3rd XI. It was a tough game for our team who consisted mostly of juniors. We batted first and made 136/9 off 30 overs. Dylan Kelly was 59 not out and Sam Greenslade scored 14. Tauranga Boys' made the runs with our bowlers doing well. Hayden Whittington took 1/12 off 4 overs, Gareth Roderick 1/19 and Sam Greenslade 1/19. Our fielding was really sharp, with two great run outs. Our cricket team is building and we can't wait to see their results next week.
Volleyball: The season kicks off straight away with our first competition games on this weekend. Good luck to our five teams who will be competing at Tect Arena, so stop in and cheer us on.
Waterpolo: Our junior girls' team has their first game coming up against Aquinas College Blue. They have been playing really well together as a team and are looking forward to getting back into the water.
Basketball and Hockey: With our summer sports finishing a bit earlier this year, we are looking to start training our winter sports teams. Basketball and hockey are having trouble finding coaches and we would love for our students to be able to play in the local leagues. If you are interested in coaching or know of anyone who may be keen, please email our sports co-ordinator at sports@tepuke.school.nz.
