Tennis: Henry Nam made the top four in the regional finals, which qualified him for the North Island tennis championships in Hamilton later this week. Tyla Gartner also participated in the BOP Secondary Schools Junior Tennis Championships and got a silver medal for finishing second in Division 2. She has been invited to play in Division 1 next year.
Water polo: Teams continue to enjoy success with the BC Sharks in the B grade intermediate section still undefeated, with convincing wins against local schools. The closest win was against Te Puke Intermediate 5-4 which leaves us currently sitting on the top of the table. In the C grade, Division 1, the BC Cudas have made good progress and are gaining valuable experience for their future in water polo at BC.
Mount Maunganui
Awards: The BOP sports awards were held last Friday at Rotorua Events Centre and MMC had two students who were finalists in the awards. Amon Rimene was selected as a finalist in the Contribution to Sport category for the long list of volunteer hours he has given to rugby, touch, Kiwi tag and Aims Games, as well as helping with coaching and refereeing lunchtime activities at school. He was deservedly the winner. A great achievement for our Year 12 student whose goal is to become New Zealand's number one referee and to referee international games.
Danny Kayes was a finalist in the Secondary Schools Sportsman Of The Year category with his outstanding year making three NZ water polo teams - NZ Under-20, NZ Under-18 and Secondary School boys. He also gained two national titles in Surf lifesaving for Papamoa's Under-19 and Open men's beach sprint relay team and also an Australian national title in the same Papamoa relay team in the Under-19 division. Danny also made his mark in the BOP Under-18 rugby rep team and was selected to attend the Chiefs training camp as well as the BOP Sevens camp. An outstanding year for our MMC Sports Boy Of The Year.
Touch: The Bay of Plenty Touch Rugby trials were held in Whakatane on Sunday, and Year 10 student Xavier Kaweroa was invited to trial for the Under-17 team. Xavier, who has just turned 15, was not eligible for the Under-15s so was trialling against hundreds of senior hopefuls. Touch rugby is such a fast growing sport and there was a huge turnout in Whakatane. Xavier played in the Papamoa Raiders team and having never played in this team before he slotted in brilliantly and was able to shine in both defence and his attacking game, which saw him score some amazing tries. Deservedly Xavier was selected in the BOP Under-17 team as one of the youngest team members.
Beach volleyball: Congratulations to our new BOP secondary schools beach volleyball champs Perry Preston and Fletcher Swan. The two paired up after they went to a beach volleyball camp earlier in the season and there has been no looking back for them. They competed down at the Mount main beach and did not drop a set in the six matches they played. Their final was against Western Heights from Rotorua. Perry and Fletcher won the gold medal in two sets to finish a fantastic weekend of volleyball. They will now refocus on this weekend's BOP champs where they both play in the Junior A Indoor Volleyball Team
Surf lifesaving: Ben Johnston has returned from the SLS Worlds where he was a member of the Under-20 development team, which finished 2nd behind Australia. Ben won medals in team events for NZ, getting silver in the beach sprint relay, and the 4 x 50 obstacle relay held in the pool. Individually he got two fifth places in the 200m Manikin Carry and Ironman. The NZ open team won the world title.
Golf: The annual MMC PTA Golf Day held at Mt Golf Club raised over $2800 for students of the college to assist with sporting and school events. With a 70-strong field that played, the highlight had to be the team from Resolve, the Rena salvors, who came to play and support the college. With more than 50 lifeguarding students, staff and families at MMC, many were involved with the Rena clean-up. The salvor team gifted three small cutout pieces of the Rena's hull and two pieces were raffled. The third will be made into a trophy that will be awarded annually to a MMC Lifeguarding student who has contributed in a lifesaving role while serving in the community. Thanks again to our Hole Sponsors; Port of Tauranga, HOBEC, Mount Drainage, Bruce Davies Panelbeaters, Mt Medical Centre & Paul Geoghean, and the many community businesses for the wonderful prizes.
Otumoetai
Tennis: The BOP Tennis Champs were held in Rotorua last Friday with our team doing well. Dominic Daly was the best with a runner-up in the Div One competition with Clara Lafont winning the constellation in the female Div One.
Cricket: Our Year 9 cricketers had a Twenty/20 home match against Aquinas. Up against some Year 10 boys who were a lot bigger, we batted first and scored 77. Best scorer was Cameron Ball, who was also dominant with his bowling. The team was beaten but enjoyed the game.
Volleyball: After a stop-start season with the BOP Junior Volleyball this year because of hall unavailability, our eight teams had a great weekend culminating with the Bay Champs. Our Junior A Girls were best, taking out the Bay title and claiming the No1 seed spot for next week's North Islands. This team captained by Jessica Gadsbey played some great volleyball with all team members contributing to a top weekend. Supported by team members Kelcy Ballantyne, Roebi Bidois, Kristen Edwards, Emily Farron, Sam Goodrick, Maddie Ragg, Mereru Rondon, Jasmine Tawa and Kahla Tyson, the girls didn't drop a set to some good opposition which was rewarding for all who have trained hard towards North Islands. The 10B and 9A girls team finished a very creditable 7th and 8th in the Bay.
The Junior boys team captained by Jack May had a great contest with the promotion/relegation game against Trident, winning in the third set 15-13. They continued the weekend in the Top 6, playing some competitive volleyball. So these five teams look forward to a massive week in Wellington at the North Island Tournament. We wish them all a great trip and thank all the parents for their great support during the BOP Champs. Congratulations also to the 9B girls team who finished 16th out of the 22 BOP teams - a great achievement for this young team.
Beach volleyball: We had 48 athletes enjoy a fantastic day at the Mount Beach competing in the BOP Secondary School Beach Champs last weekend. Everyone enjoyed the perfect conditions throughout the day with plenty of attention on competition among the pairs to reach the medal games. In the Senior Boys grade, Cameron Ragg/Jack Boyle had a thriller semifinal match losing by just two points in the 3rd set against eventual winners Fullerton/McAdam (TBC). Willis Glen Vile/Daryl Lewis, also semifinalists, claimed the bronze medal. The Senior Girls grade was won by our team Abbie Meredith/Julia Hartley, with another Oats team of Kiahani Strickland/Brooke Palmer claiming silver after a three setter game. The Junior Boys team of Jack May/Isaiah Duncanson did well to claim the bronze medal. In the Junior Girls grade we dominated with five teams into the quarter-finals. Best teams were Jasmine Tawa/Roebi Bidois and Grace Burnett/Cushla Vanstone reaching the semis with Jasmine and Roebi winning the bronze medal. Thanks to our coach Sam O'Dea who has been brilliant in training these athletes for this tournament. Congratulations to Abbie Meredith/Julia Hartley and James Gilling/Daryl Lewis for being selected into the NZ teams competing at the Oceania Beach Volleyball Championships in Tahiti in late November.
Cricket: The First XI had a win over Trident on our home ground. Trident posted 117 runs all out. We responded with a good innings with 12 overs and 6 wickets to spare. Nathan Mcdonald, Vaughan Wilson and Sanjeev Mistry all contributed with the bat and Scott Wilson took 2 wickets for 27 runs.
Water polo: Our team had a win 12-3 against Mt College B. They have played five games this season with only two losses.
Tauranga Boys'
Cricket: TBC First XI Cricket v East Bay United - TBC 98 (T MacRury 34) East Bay United 99 for 7 (Mark Orchard 4 for 14).
Our roller-coaster of a season continued on Saturday, this time with a poor performance at Rex Morpeth Park in Whakatane against East Bay United. After a sensible start at 47 for 1 and Thomas MacRury again looking in fine form, wickets tumbled regularly from that point on. Eventually we were dismissed for a paltry 98. In reply, Francois Potgieter was threatening with the new ball, taking the key wicket of Alex Yates. James Boyd picked up a tidy caught and bowled a few overs later and the door was slightly ajar. Two wickets in two balls from Mark Orchard had them at 60 for 5 and a real chance of victory, before they crept across the line at 99 for 7.
TBC 2nd XI v Katikati
Katikati won the toss and chose to bat first. Henry Conway, Sam Stibbs and Connor Probert all caused the Katikati batsmen problems as wickets fell regularly. Alex Stewart also bowled well near the end of the innings. Unfortunately wides and no-balls were still an issue, but improved from previous game: Katikati all out for 149. TBC started off slowly with the top order struggling to get on top of a good bowling attack. Henry Conway and Sam Stibbs made good contributions, but not quite enough: TBC all out 22 runs short.
Beach volleyball: During the weekend the BOPSS Beach Volleyball tournament saw seven TBC junior and three senior teams compete. Two teams made the quarter-final at the junior level but progressed no further. In the seniors, Thomas Reid and Joseph Winstanley played Otumoetai College pair Daryl Lewis and Willis Glen Vile. In a tightly contested match TBC won the third set to progress to the final. In the other semifinal, Brad Fullerton and Burton McAdam played Otumoetai College's Jack Boyle and Cameron Ragg. In another three set game TBC came away victors. The final was a TBC grudge match that went to the wire in both sets with Fullerton/McAdam winning 21-18, 21-19.
Te PukeWater polo: Our girls are currently sitting in 3rd place overall on the table. There are still a few games left in the season and the team is going strong.
Volleyball: We had the BOPSS finals over the weekend at TECT arena. We had plenty of support from parents and staff who came to watch our teams battle the Bay to improve their final positions before tournament. Our girls played really well beating Whakatane and Otumoetai 9A to finish 10th overall while our boys beat Tauranga Boys', Mount Maunganui College and Otumoetai to finish 3rd overall in the Bay. A huge thank you to our coaches James Tulloch, Erin Kouwenhoven, Declan Barnett, Michael Kearns and Greg Cummings.
