College Sports: Wrestlers reap golden harvest on US tour

By JENNI RUTHERFORD

Kees Meeuws and Bull Allen are household rugby names. Their muscle and strength have been admired by many fans during their careers.

But few know that a lesser known sport - wrestling - contributed to their success.

Both dabbled in wrestling. All Black prop Meeuws wrestled for four years during his time at Kelston Boys High School, while Allen wrote in his book, Mark of the Bull, that wrestling had helped his propping.

New Zealand secondary schools coach Iain Adamson believes every rugby player should incorporate wrestling into their training sessions.

"I've had 130kg props being thrown by an 80kg schoolboy," he said.

While wrestling was a sport on the side for Meeuws and Allen, some young New Zealanders are muscling their way to the forefront of the sport.

Israel McMillan, from Rosehill College, has gone from strength to strength, winning the 54kg class at the New Zealand secondary schools championships.

McMillan also impressed on a recent tour to the United States.

Another to catch the watchful eye of the Americans was Andrew Miller (King's College), who won the 58kg class.

Miller, who captained the team in the United States, defeated a state placegetter while suffering from a shoulder injury, causing a major upset in a country where wrestling is a strong sport.

"It has more wrestlers than the number of rugby players in the entire world," said Adamson.

The New Zealand secondary school team toured southern California and at the two meetings picked up 28 medals, including 11 gold.

The trip was an eye-opener for many of the boys, who had never been so far from home nor trained so hard.

"We weren't used to the intensity. The Americans were amazed that we only trained twice a week," Adamson said. "Over there, they run in the morning and then have two training sessions a day."

vp+9DUATHLON

After earlier successes in the Auckland secondary schools triathlon championships, Terenzo Bozzone (Rangitoto College) has maintained his multisport dominance.

Bozzone was first home in the Auckland schools duathlon event at Ardmore.

Competing in the intermediate grade, Bozzone headed the field throughout and finished 50s in front of the first senior boy, Clarke Ellice, from Auckland Grammar.

Julia Scopes (Epsom Girls Grammar) was two minutes faster than her closest rival in the senior girls' race.

vp+9RUGBY St Peter's College remain unbeaten and lead the points table in the Auckland premier 1A grade after downing Otahuhu College 30-8.

vp+9Coming up this week -

Today: Netball, Counties Manukau; rhythmic gymnastics championships; hockey, Auckland, North Harbour boys; league; soccer, Counties Manukau.

Tomorrow: Artistic gymnastics; hockey, Auckland, North Harbour girls.

Friday: Hockey, North Harbour girls; squash, basketball, badminton premier and A grade.

Saturday: Netball, Auckland, Waitakere, North Harbour; rugby, Auckland, Counties Manakau, North Harbour; soccer, swimming, Auckland secondary school championships.

Sunday: Cycling, orienteering.

Monday: Hockey, North Harbour; rugby, girls; squash, junior boys.