College Sports: Wickets tumble in Te Awamutu win

By DAVE WORSLEY

Te Awamutu have won their first Waikato secondary schools cricket title after a tense win over the St Paul's second XI in the final. St Paul's won the toss and elected to bat, scoring just 50 runs after 17 overs but with no wickets down.

Once Te Awamutu struck there was a regular procession of St Paul's wickets. At 125-9 the game had swung heavily in favour of Te Awamutu. Pace bowler Michael McAdam did the most damage, claiming 3/43. A defiant last wicket stand of 27 lifted the total to 152.

In the third and fourth playoff between St Peter's School and Morrinsville. St Peter's batted first and were in early trouble at 39/4. Nick Earl steadied the ship with a well compiled 50 as St Peter's recovered to 188/9.

Morrinsville started their run chase patiently and had reached 50/1 in the 22nd over. As they tried to accelerate their innings they lost wickets. Gavin McCowatt hit a quick 27 but with three overs remaining Morrinsville required 19 runs with two wickets in hand but ended up 16 runs short.

The division two final between St Peter's second XI and St John's College second XI was a low scoring contest with St Peter's scoring 71 and St John's 51.

VOLLEYBALL

Bay of Plenty schools once again dominated the national secondary schools champs with Otumoetai A beating Tauranga Boys' A in a thrilling final.

The girls' final was also won by Otumoetai A over Avondale College in three straight games.

ROWING

Wanganui Collegiate took the major prize in national secondary schools rowing at the chilly Maadi Cup contest at Lake Ruataniwha at the weekend.

Hamilton Boys' High claimed five gold medals, and Sacred Heart announced their arrival on the national scene with their first New Zealand title.

Hamilton Boys' won gold in the under-15 fours, under-16 fours and eights, under-17 fours and eights. Their under-17 eight also qualified for the Maadi Cup final.

There was a line of snow around the lake edge on the final couple of days of the event.

The low temperatures and wind-chill resulted in some suffering from hypothermia.

ARCHERY

The popularity of this sport is gaining momentum with a record turn-out of 15, four-member teams representing six secondary schools.

Baradene and King's College had decisive wins in the girls' and boys' divisions.

Carmel College finished second in their debut ahead of Marist.

King's showed their depth, and the benefit of more intensive training, when their B team came second ahead of Auckland Grammar.

SOFTBALL

Kelston Boys' High School, are national boys softball champions for 2004. Kelston beat fellow Auckland school St Peter's College in the final to take the title. Aranui High were third and Hastings Boys High fourth. Havelock North High beat Penrose in the girls' final. Auckland Girls' Grammar won third place from Wellington's Naenae College.

ATHLETICS

Athletes at the North Island secondary schools championships at Inglewood wore the colours of their province rather than their school.

Teams from the Auckland region took 33 titles over the two days.

Multiple winners included Counties Manukau's James Kaan in the junior 800m and 1500m and Sarah Saddleton in the intermediate girls long jump and high jump.

Auckland's Kate Campbell won the senior 3000m and 1500m and Jordan Vandermade won the senior boys javelin and discus.

SWIMMING

The Auckland champion of champion meet proved to be a great success for the powerhouse swimming schools.

In the senior events, Emma Blake, from Diocesan, and Corney Swanepoel, from Rangitoto College, won the butterfly titles comfortably. Emma also won the breaststroke title while Glenn Snyders won the boys' title for Westlake.

Rachel Rassie, of Diocesan, and Brent Griffiths, of Auckland Grammar, triumphed in backstroke. Dean Burger beat schoolmate Swanepoel in the freestyle final and Jennifer Simiss did Baradene proud in winning her final by a second.

In the relays, Diocesan scored a treble with the butterfly, backstroke and freestyle races. In the boys' events, Rangitoto won the butterfly and freestyle, Auckland Grammar the backstroke and Avondale did a double in the breaststroke finals.

St Cuthbert's College won the girls' medley final, Rangitoto the boys'.