College Sport: Avondale side to watch

Avondale College look to be the main challenger to defending champs Verdon College from Southland in group B of the national secondary school netball champs in Taupo.

Avondale defeated Massey in their first match 37-22 while Verdon thrashed Ashburton. In group A, Auckland Grammar beat Kelston 41-33.

Jade Dopa from Auckland Grammar leads the shooting stats after the first round with 25 successful attempts out of 29 for a 90 per cent shooting record.

CURLING

The North Island team for the New Zealand Secondary School champs has been selected with Birkenhead College dominating the girls squad and Rangitoto the boys.

Catherine Vaka, Caroline Slooten, Roz McKenzie and Natasha Dallow have all been named for the tournament in Queenstown over Labour weekend.

The boys team is Andrew Lester, Roscoe Dallow and Marc Nicholas, all from Rangitoto, and Glen Nelson from Kelston Boys.

BASKETBALL

The national U16 basketball championships in Nelson were successful for the Tai Tokerau team which encompasses the area from North Harbour to Cape Reinga. Tai Tokerau finished as finalists in both the girls and boys sections and had several players in the tournaments teams.

Puawai Halkyard from Takapuna Grammar was named in the top side along with Waikato's Church College student Kyler Parai, Jay-Anna Brewster from Dio and two Kaitaia College students, Heeni Brown and Rangi Moses.

Westlake's Matthew Wells, Jordan Reid from Rangitoto and Morgan Landon from Rutherford High School all made the boys' tournament team.

BOYS: Boyd Scirkovish (Capital), Randall Bishop (Capital), Tim Bateman (Tasman) , Martin Davidson (Canterbury), Ben Siffleet (Taranaki), Morgan Landon (Auckland Waitakere) Matthew Wells (Tai Tokerau) Thomas Abercrombie (Tai Tokerau) Ross Taurima (Capital) Jordan Reid (Tai Tokerau) MVP Ross Taurima (Capital)

GIRLS: Ruawai Halkyard (Tai Tokerau) Rangi Moses (Tai Tokerau) Katie Menzies (South) Elise Cassidy (South) Suzie Bates (South) Kyler Parai (Waikato) Jay-anna Brewster (Auckland Waitakere) Claire Fairey (Taranaki) Heeni Brown (Tai Tokerau) Jessica Tuki (Taranaki) MVP Elise Cassidy (South)

BADMINTON

Westlake Boys High school dominated the North Harbour badminton competition winning three grades and finishing as a finalist in two of the seven boys sections. Rangitoto won the premier boys while in the girls section Carmel College beat Westlake for the premier title.

The 18's championships are under way at the Auckland Badminton Centre with North Harbour taking the teams title. The individual part of the event started last night, to close with the finals on Friday.

VOLLEYBALL

The premier junior girls volleyball gets under way on Monday with defending champs Avondale again the favourites. Avondale have been almost unbeatable over the past few years under the tutorage of Nathan Samu. However, Samu has now left the school. The first round puts Avondale against Kelston, Mangere versus James Cook and Tamaki against Otahuhu. The other sides in the competition are Glenfield, Mt Albert and McAuley High School.

YACHTING

As expected Westlake Girls finished top in the national schools fleet racing regatta on Lake Pupuke. St Cuthberts were second after a countback over Epsom Girls' Grammar.

THIS WEEK

Today:NZ U18's badminton, Gillies Ave

National Secondary Schools Champs at Taupo until Friday

Thursday: U18's badminton, Gillies Ave

Friday: U18's badminton, Gillies Ave

Monday: Auckland girls' juniors premier volleyball