College sport: MAGS leads assault on top titles

Auckland schools made merry up and down the country collecting titles in a wide variety of sports in the annual winter tournament week.

Mt Albert Grammar, on the back of their strong showing in local championships, led the charge with successes in senior soccer, netball, basketball and rugby. They also collected a junior underwater hockey title.

WBHS chipped in with victories in badminton and basketball while Diocesan, AGS, St Pauls, St Kentigern, EGGS and the Auckland International College also collected titles in a variety of sports.

There was also success in other tournament week events for Waiheke High on the greens at the Papatoetoe Bowling Club and Long Bay College and Henderson High in the North Island curling championships at Paradice.

Luke Cottrell and Kerryn Etika won the singles titles for Waiheke while the pairs were won by James Cook High (boys) and St Dominics girls).

Long Bay won the boys and mixed titles in curling and Henderson High the girl's title while WGHS just missed out in badminton when beaten on a countback by Hillcrest High.

Despite their outstanding record in Auckland soccer in the past decade, Kevin Fallon's MAGS team broke new ground at the Lotto Premier tournament in Nelson as they successfully defended their national title for the first time.

AGS continued their domination at hockey's Rankin Cup with their fifth win in seven years in beating season-long rivals Kings 3-0 in the final in Dunedin.

The all-conquering MAGS netballers added a third major title to their season's haul with an easier-than-expected win in the Upper North Island tournament in Hamilton while their girl's basketball team came up trumps in the zone one premiership, beating Rangitoto in the final.

Diocesan waved the flag in girl's hockey with their win in the Federation Cup beating St Margarets in the final.

WBHS won the boy's basketball title to complete a double dose of misery for Rangitoto at the North Shore Events Centre while the Westlake boys continued their domination on the badminton court with yet another triumph at the national secondary schools championships in Wellington.

MAGS were knocked out by eventual winners Hamilton BHS at the 1st XV rugby play-offs in Rotorua but they bounced back to thrash Napier BHS in the play-off for third.

There was success for MAGS at the colts tournament in New Plymouth, however, as their under-15 side beat Napier 24-5 in the final.

In an all-Auckland affair, St Kentigern won the national table tennis crown from Macleans with Auckland International College claiming the round-robin girl's championship.

BADMINTON

A sixth win in seven years confirmed Westlake BHS's standing as the top boy's school in New Zealand.

The team of Johan Lau, Yrjo Galvez, Evan Lee, Maika Phillips and Kerwyn Lee successfully defended the title the school won a year ago with a 4-2 win over Massey High in the final in Wellington.

WBHS lost only one match at the three-day tournament and recorded resounding 6-0 wins over Wanganui BHS, St Kentigern, Nayland College and Rosehill. They also beat Otago BHS 5-1 before claiming the trophy with victory in an exciting all-Auckland final.

Macleans beat Rosehill 5-1 in the play-off for third to continue the domination of Auckland schools.

Hopes of a double for Westlake schools were dashed but it needed a second countback before Hillcrest High were declared winners of the girl's championship.

The two schools were locked 3-3 on matches and 8-8 on games before a countback of points handed the Hamilton school the title 307-278 and left WGHS as runners-up. In the play-off for third EGGS beat St Kentigern 4-2.

BASKETBALL

Westlake BHS claimed bragging rights with a hard-fought 68-57 win over long-time rivals Rangitoto College in the zone one premiership final at the North Shore Events Centre.

That result reversed their finishing order after round-robin play in the Auckland premier championship but showed both schools are on course for a replay in the local final on Friday week.

MAGS, who lost out to Rangitoto in the Auckland girl's premier race on points differential, claimed the zone one honours with their comfortable 76-54 win in the final.

Elsewhere, defending champions St Patrick's College (boys) and Church College (girls) will enter the NZ Secondary Schools Championships later this month as top seeds after winning their respective premierships.

After losing most of the players that have guided them to the last two national boys' titles, St Pat's have not had things their own way this season, losing their Wellington secondary schools title to Mana College last month.

But they have bounced back to beat NPBHS 69-54 in the zone three premiership final and confirm their top billing for the nationals in Palmerston North, starting on September 28.

In their last year of existence, Church College are on course to bow out in style, defeating Diocesan 90-35 in their zone two final.

But while the national champions emerged unscathed, last year's respective runners-up both took a tumble at their qualifying tournaments.

Fraser High were upset by Tauranga Boys' HS in the zone two semifinals, while Rangitoto College fell to MAGS in their girl's final.

The top six teams in each tournament qualify for the national tournament.

CYCLING

A record field of 475 - 60 up on a year earlier - made the most of perfect Auckland weather to go on a record-breaking spree at the New Zealand SS individual championships.

The charge was led by the under-17 boys as 14 records were broken over the three disciplines - the individual time trials, hillclimbs on Mt Wellington and the always keenly-contested criteriums.

Sam Mullaly (St Kentigern) dominated the boy's under-20 grade with a record ride in the hillclimb to go with his second placings in the time trial and criterium.

Sam Lindsey (Macleans) broke the five-year-old time trial record by 3secs to take the early lead while Daniel Smith (AGS) finished second overall following his win in the criterium.

Amelia Watkinson (Diocesan) clipped 2secs from the five-year-old time trial record and followed that with second-place finishes in the hillclimb and criterium to claim overall honours from Phillippa Sutton (Waikato Diocesan) and Lillie Summerville (WGHS).

Bike NZ will take real heart from the record-breaking feats in the under-17 boys as a number of the riders in their development programme showed out - in some cases recording times faster than those in the older age group.

In an outstanding ride, Alex Frame (Cashmere) slashed 21secs from the 2003 time trial record set by Sam Bewley who has gone on to make his mark internationally.

James Oram was 13secs faster than the previous best in the hillclimb - and 1sec faster than Mullaly's time in the under-20 grade.

Under-16 girl's winner Georgina Wilson (Diocesan) smashed the time trial record by 30secs and followed that with third in the hillclimb and first in the criterium to claim overall honours.

Organisers are now looking forward to next year's 15th championships and a field of 500 for the first time.

HOCKEY

Led by their captain, the tournament's most valuable player Sam Harrison, Diocesan added the national championship to their Auckland and inter-city titles with a 2-0 win over St Margaret's College in the Federation Cup final in Wellington.

Diocesan had almost the perfect record in claiming the title. Their only dropped points came in their last pool match when held 1-1 by Tauranga GC after they had already booked their quarter-final spot. In earlier matches Diocesan beat WGHS 4-0 and Wanganui Collegiate 2-1. In the quarter-finals they beat Wairarapa College 2-0.

The semifinal, a rematch of their inter-city semifinal with St Cuthberts, was won 2-1 to book a place in the final against similarly unbeaten St Margarets.

Led by strong defensive games from Navneet Singh and Millie McKelvie who linked superbly with midfielders Shannon Thompson and Harrison, Diocesan were always in control.

They went to the break 1-0 ahead following a successful drag flick at a penalty corner from Danielle Sutherland. The scoring was completed with the only goal of the second half when Arabella Nelson deflected home a ball struck into the circle by Harrison.

AGS were just as dominant in claiming the Rankin Cup for the fifth time in seven years.

The only time they were under any pressure was in their last pool match when they came from 2-0 down to beat Rangitoto 3-2 in a game which counted for little as AGS had already assured themselves of top spot in their pool.

They then beat PNBHS 2-0 in the semifinals and, in their most clinical display, Hamilton BHS 6-0 in the semifinals.

The final showdown with Kings was timely as Kings had won the Auckland championship and AGS the inter-city. Two early goals from Joe Crooks, who has scored more than 100 for the school, set them on their way. Nick Bint added a third to complete the 3-0 win.

The experience of the AGS team was a telling factor.

Four of their players ended the tournament with a third Rankin Cup winners medal but with a number of key players now bowing out, the team, coached this year by Jason Roberts and Aneesh Kesha (who won a Rankin Cup as a player), faces a huge rebuilding task.

NETBALL

Coaches Paula Smith, Kathryn Woodman and Diana Tiavale were again able to watch with real satisfaction as their MAGS team completed the northern trifecta in Hamilton.

In 10 wins from 10 games at the Upper North Island tournament, including the final against AGGS, MAGS, led by the shooting prowess of Tera-Maria Amani, scored 430 points and conceded only 180 as they claimed the title for the third successive year.

Portia Woodman was named the tournament's most valuable player.

SOCCER

Kevin Fallon was banished to a watching brief away from the sideline action but there was no hiding the satisfaction he took as his new-look team collected another Lotto Premier title in Nelson.

With only four players who played the final a year earlier in action against Hamilton BHS, Fallon had some reservations as he headed south.

Not for long.

A 5-1 win over traditional rivals New Plymouth BHS - and with it the retention of the Egmont Cup - set MAGS on their way.

That was to be one of only three goals they conceded in six matches - the other two in a 5-2 semifinal win over tournament surprise packet Sacred Heart.

In the end MAGS scored 24 goals including two in their 2-0 win over Hamilton, a game described by Fallon as probably their worst of the week. Their cause was not helped in having key striker Pomare Te Anau suspended after being needlessly sent off in the semifinal win over Sacred Heart.

Young centre-back Matthew Rowland chose the right time to score his first goal of the season when he gave MAGS the lead just six minutes into the final. The scoring was completed eight minutes into the second half when goalkeeper Patrick George stepped forward to score from the spot after a Hamilton defender had handled in the area.

While he did not add to his impressive tally in the final, Dakota Lucas shared the golden boot as the leading scorer.

Nikko Boxall was named man of the match while MAGS captain and central defender Caleb Duncan was voted the tournament's most valuable player.

It was the 10th final MAGS have contested since 1999 and their sixth triumph.

Fallon has some work to do as he looks ahead to next season with about 50 per cent of his players expected to return.

Their girls almost matched the MAGS boys but were undone in a penalty shootout.

After racing through pool play with 2-0, 6-0, 4-0 and 2-0 victories, hopes of winning through to the final were dashed in the quarter-finals when, after leading 1-0 with two minutes to play against eventual winners Marian College, they ended 1-1 and then lost the penalty shootout.

In remaining matches they won 2-0 and 5-3 - over Tauranga GHS - in the play-off for fifth to end the tournament with just the one loss.

TABLE TENNIS

St Kentigern College 14-year-old Kevin Wu was in outstanding form at the NZ SS Championships.

Wu led his school to victory in the A premier grade teams' championship and continued in the form in the individual events where he won the Open A grade singles and then, teamed with Lingnan Kong, completed the A grade quinnella by claiming the doubles crown as well.

The youngster, who became New Zealand's youngest senior men's representative this year, beat players up to four years his senior en route to his stunning successes. He now hopes to claim a place in the New Zealand team for next year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

COMING UP

TODAY

Soccer: (all Bill McKinlay Park), Junior Knockout Cup final, Sancta Maria v WBHS noon. Senior Knockout Cup final, AGS v St Peters 1.30pm. Association prizegiving 2.30pm.

FRIDAY

Basketball: Greater Auckland Tournament, all North Shore Events Centre, premier, semifinals, girls, Rangitoto v AGGS 6pm; MAGS v Massey 6pm; boys, Rangitoto v MAGS 7.30pm; WBHS v Onehunga 7.30pm. Other grades, semifinals, open boys (4.30pm), Glendowie v Avondale, St Kentigern v WBHS A. Under-17 boys (3.20pm), WBHS A v Henderson, AGS v Lynfield. Under-15 boys (2.10pm), WBHS A v Massey, AGS v Dilworth. Open girls (4.30pm), Kristin v Rangitoto, Manurewa v St Cuthberts. Under-17 girls (3.20pm), Avondale v MAGS, Manurewa v St Dominics. Under-15 girls (2.10pm), MAGS v WGHS A, St Cuthberts v Rangitoto.

MONDAY

Lawn bowls: Auckland inter-school final, Remuera BC.

SATURDAY

Weightlifting: NZSS Champs, Te Kauwhata College

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