KEY POINTS:
This year's ongoing rivalry between Auckland Grammar and Mt Albert Grammar goes back on the line this afternoon with the last of the season's three soccer trophies at stake.
Fresh from their hard-fought, come-from-behind 2-1 win over MAGS in last week's Lotto Sports premier final in Napier, AGS will fancy their chances in today's Knockout Cup final at Bill McKinlay Park.
MAGS have already claimed the Auckland championship - with AGS second - in one of the most enduring rivalries in Auckland sport.
The schools have been to the fore in various sporting arenas locally and nationally in a variety of sports.
AGS bounced back from their 3-2 loss to Westlake BHS in last month's inter-city hockey final to win the premier Rankin Cup.
In a replay of last year's final (and in a game again going to extra time and beyond), AGS beat Palmerston North BHS 3-1 on strokes after scores had been locked 3-3 at fulltime.
Down 0-2 early in the game, AGS fought back to level at 2-2 with goals from Ketan Hari and Jesse Wilson. PNBHS retook the lead midway through the second spell but Hamesh Kesha grabbed the equaliser to keep alive AGS hopes.
Two saves from AGS goalkeeper and captain Hamish Wilson paved the way for their victory.
It was a similar story in the soccer final. A good ball from Mark Withers led to Milosh Nikolic's 17th minute opening goal.
MAGS retained that lead at the break but fell behind when Jacob Mathews scored two well-taken goals in a 20-minute spell.
MAGS had the chance of a late equaliser when AGS were down to 10 players but a header missed the target.
Today's final will be a replay of the 2004 final which MAGS won 1-0 at North Harbour Stadium.
MAGS are seeking to retain the trophy they won with a 2-0 victory over Macleans last season.
The wins for AGS in soccer and hockey followed up earlier success in the national squash final.
MAGS did find winning form elsewhere, however, with victory in the keenly-contested Upper North Island Netball Championship, beating Rangitoto College in the final.
Their boys' hockey team also chimed in, coming back from 0-2 to beat Central Hawkes Bay 3-2 in the final of the Olympic Stick tournament in Taupo.
They came close to capping another good week, with their rugby first XV winning through to the national secondary schools top four championship in Rotorua.
After trailing Gisborne BHS by a large margin at halftime, MAGS rallied with three late tries to close to 35-24 by fulltime.
Earlier, MAGS, who were chasing their first national title since 1982, had beaten Nelson College 26-13 in the semifinals.
Gisborne had a tougher task before getting home 12-7 over Hamilton BHS in their semifinal.
Hamilton beat Nelson 31-3 in the play-off for third.
BASKETBALL
Rangitoto College and Kelston BHS take winning form into this week's Auckland premier semifinals.
Slightly against predictions, Rangitoto, who finished third in the local round-robin, got up to beat Harbour rivals Northcote College 78-56 in last week's zone one girl's final played as part of tournament week.
The two schools will meet again in Friday's second semifinal at the North Shore Events Centre, after Northcote had finished second behind AGGS in the local competition.
AGGS, who beat Avondale 82-47 in the play-off for third at the zone finals, will play Massey HS in the Friday semifinal, with the winner going through to next week's final. Massey finished fifth in the zone tournament by beating Westlake GHS 84-61.
KBHS, the winners of the round-robin in the Auckland premier boys' race, face fourth-placed WBHS in the second semifinal on Friday. Kelston beat Dilworth 98-74 in the zone final.
AGS, who did not make it through to the top four in Auckland, claimed third with their hard-fought 77-74 win over WBHS.
In the early semifinal on Friday, second-placed Dilworth meet Rangitoto who finished third in the local championship but only fifth in the zone play-off with a 102-77 win over Onehunga HS.
The top six boys and girls teams from the zone play-offs go through to the national tournament at the North Shore Events Centre in the first week of the school holidays.
CYCLING
Tom David gave his rivals no chance with a three-from-three effort in claiming the under-20 title at the national secondary schools championships. David (St Kentigern) and Pakuranga College's Alex McCrory-Bowick were the only cyclists to win all three disciplines.
David led off with a clear win in the opening 8km time trial, beating Aaron Gate (AGS) by almost 12s. He then dominated the criterium, collecting 37 points in sprints on the 1.2km circuit in East Tamaki. Gate was again right in it, finishing just one point back.
But any hope Gate entertained of pegging back David on the short but testing Mt Wellington hillclimb were dashed with David's amazing 1m 26.80s, which slashed 10s from the record.
Gate recorded the third-fastest time to hold second overall from Simon Honour (Rotorua BHS), who was third in the time trial, fifth in the criterium and second-fastest up the hill.
McCrory-Bowick fared even better in the under-15 grade, when he clipped an incredible 13s from the hillclimb record. Earlier, he had won the time trial by 5s from Matt Foreman (AGS) and headed him by six points in the criterium. Despite being only fourth-fastest on the hill, Foreman held second overall from Nick Iwan (St Kentigern) and Sam Morreau (AGS).
The tightest contest came in the under-17 boys, where visiting Patrick Williamson (Dunstan HS) took the honours by just two points without winning any discipline.
Fifth and fourth in the time trial and criterium respectively, Williamson snatched the honours by recording the second-fastest time up the hill.
Emma Petersen (St Peter's School) was rewarded for her consistency in taking under-20 honours. Second behind Phillipa Swain (Central Southland College) in the time trial, Petersen stormed home in the criterium with a clear 16-point advantage over Emily Collins (Baradene). Those placings were reversed on the hillclimb, with Collins 7s faster.
Her poor time trial cost her any chance of victory but she edged Swain in the last two disciplines to finish second overall.
Diocesan's Sarah Gilkison retained her under-17 title despite a weak finish with eighth place in the hillclimb.
A clear winner in the time trial and criterium, Gilkison held on to take the honours by a point from Lillie Summerville (WGHS), who was consistent with a third in the time trial followed by a sixth in the criterium and third in the hillclimb.
Attention now turns to the keenly-contested Auckland team time trial championships and the seventh and last races in the series on the Auckland waterfront early on Sunday morning.
With one-off trophies also up for grabs, it promises to be a fitting finale to the popular event.
LEAGUE
For a school of just 260 pupils, St Paul's College continues to punch above their weight on the league field.
The 30-10 victory they scored over Southern Cross Campus in the national final at Fowlds Park on Friday deservedly earned them their ninth title in 12 years.
In front of scouts from NRL clubs the Warriors, Broncos and Sea Eagles, St Paul's were in sparkling form and showed their versatility after their first rugby XV had claimed a top four finish in the Auckland championship.
TABLE TENNIS
Is there no stopping Macleans College's Steven Zheng? In a hectic schedule last week, he beat his brother Terry 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 to claim the individual title at the national secondary schools championships in Christchurch. He also led Macleans' 3-2 win over WBHS in the team final.
A day later, Zheng was back in Auckland and won his two singles matches as Macleans beat Mt Roskill Grammar 4-3 in the feature round six clash of the Auckland Early Spring Championship.
Not surprisingly, Auckland schools dominated the national boy's championship, with AGS and St Kentigern filling the remaining top four places in the team contest.
It was a different story for the girls, however, with South Island schools to the fore. Invercargill's James Hargest High beat Hutt Valley High 4-1 in the team final, with Marlborough GH and Burnside High filling the other top four spots. Jenny Hung (Burnside) took individual honours when she beat Jessica McAskill (James Hargest) 16-14, 11-2, 11-5 in the final.
The championships, held for the first time in tournament week, were restricted to 16 m male and six female teams who had to qualify through regional play-offs.
In the local competition, Zheng also combined with Roy Lin to win the match-deciding doubles. With two wins in singles, Andy Shi gave Mt Roskill some hope. Brandon Wallace won one singles for them.
