KEY POINTS:
Frazer Wickes wiped one of the oldest New Zealand Secondary Schools' track and field records from the books with a blistering run in the final of the junior 400m at Wanganui's Cooks Gardens.
Wickes, 15, from Westlake BHS, ran an amazing 47.79s to shatter Richard Goldstone's record by 1.21s. in clocking a time faster than the senior mark of 47.86s set by Sam Higgie in 1999.
After coasting through his heat in 54.30s and semifinal in 53.95s, Wickes ran away with the final, finishing well clear of second-placed Werner Dunn (Pakuranga College) who ran 51.77s.
The senior boy's 400m was won by Matthew Robinson, from Southland BHS, in 48.74s.
Rangitoto's rising pole vault star Kerry Charlesworth added 30cm to the open girls' record clearing 3.80m to break the record set by Nikki Cliffe, seven years ago. Morgan Williams, also Rangitoto, finished second behind Charlesworth at 3.40m.
Tim McKee (Burnside HS) cleared 4.00m to win the open boys' pole vault.
Te Rina Keenan (MAGS) won the senior girls' discus with a 47.16m winning throw, while Ayla Gill (Takapuna GS) claimed hammer gold with a 49.87m throw, and Stephanie Wrathall (Orewa College) took the javelin with a winning 43.46m.
Dallas Bowden (Nelson) went close to the 1m 51.59s record in winning the senior 800m in 1m 51.66s, beating Waiuku College's Michael Whitehead (1m 53.26s).
Bowden also won the 1500m in 4m 00.28s from Dominic Channon (Nelson College) who ran 4m 01.45s. It was a good effort by Bowden who had missed 10 weeks of training as he overcame a knee injury.
Channon came back to comfortably claim the 3000m crown in 8m 34.53s from Brendon Blacklaws (Wellington College).
Angie Smit (Rangiora) won the senior girls' 800m in 2m 11.42s with Hannah Newbold (Cashmere HS) completing a Canterbury double in taking the 1500m in 4m 33.78s.
Aaron Pulford (Hauraki Plains College) won the senior 2000m steeplechase in 6m 12.88s and followed that with victory in the 6km road race with a winning 19m 21.00s - 9s ahead of second-placed Rabah Bahir (WBHS) with Brett Pulford (Napier BHS) third.
Francesca Priest (St Cuthberts) won the junior girls' 4km road race by 7s from Beatrice Kenny (Wanganui Collegiate) in 14m 24.0s with Hannah Drury (Napier GHS) third.
The junior boys' road race (4km) was won by Nathan Barrett (Scots College) in 12m 43s pipping Zach Butler (Burnside) by 2s with Tadele Tekle-Haimanot (Mt Roskill GS) third.
After being headed by David Ambler (Christchurch) in the senior boys' 100m in 10.81s, Avondale College's Clayton Mbofana reversed the result in the 200m, winning in 21.91s.
Among other successes for Auckland schools were the Kristin senior girls' 4x400m relay; WBHS in junior boys' 4x400m relay; Ben Paltridge and Livvy Wilson (Kristin) in their respective junior 200m; John Schreuder (WBHS) in the junior boys' 1500m; and Lesieli Fonua and Zoe Ballantyne (WGHS) in the junior girls' shot put and 80m hurdles respectively.
For full results from the NZ SS Track and Field Championships go to: http://entries.co.nz/nzsstf2007/athlete/search.html
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CRICKET
The Westlake BHS first Xl face a huge challenge when they line up against seven of the best in the annual Gillette Cup finals in Palmerston North tomorrow.
With Dunedin's Kavanagh College, (who are only the third co-educational school to win through to the finals), WBHS are the only newcomers to win through to the tournament.
They will be up against Hamilton BHS, Tauranga BC, Palmerston North BHS, Wanganui Collegiate, Wellington College and Christchurch BHS.
The teams who have played in previous tournaments have all had their hands on the coveted cup at least once with PNBHS and Christchurch BHS three-time winners.
With selection in the New Zealand under-19 team to play February's ICC World Cup in Malaysia an added incentive, there will be much interest in the four-day tournament. It brings together the top schools from New Zealand Cricket's six associations along with the runners-up from the two associations with the most entries, in this case Northern and Central Districts.
Former first class players Chris Kuggeleijn (Hamilton BHS), Robbie Kerr (Wellington College), Paul Gibbs (Wanganui Collegiate) and Mark Bracewell (Kavanagh College) will pit their coaching skills against each other while PNBHS coach Lance Retemeyer will chase a second title after steering the side to victory in 2004.
He also captained the winning team at the inaugural Gillette Cup in 1990.
Eleven players who have had finals experience including Jacob Oram, Jamie How, Mathew Sinclair, Scott Styris and Brendon McCullum have gone on to play for the Black Caps while another 48 players have played first class cricket, including Corey Anderson, who has played for Canterbury this season while still at Christchurch BHS.
He is a certainty for the national under-19 side.
The tournament is played in two pools of four with the pool winners meeting in Sunday's final.
Pool one: PNBHS, Hamilton BHS, WBHS, Kavanagh College.
Pool two: Christchurch BHS, Tauranga BC, Wellington College, Wanganui Collegiate.
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LAWN BOWLS
King of the green Greg Ruaporo underlined his standing as New Zealand's best schoolboy bowler by successfully defending his national SS singles title at Wellington's Silverstream BC yesterday.
Ruaporo, from St Peter's College, beat Cameron Riddington (Bethlehem College) 21-5 in his semi and Nathan Glasson (Aranui HS) 17-7 in the final.
The Waiheke HS pairing of Scott and Luke Cottrell sprang a surprise in the boys' pairs when they upset defending champions Michael Johnson and Nathanael Lucas (Tawa College) 11-3 in the final.
The girls' singles title also headed north when Emma Le Lievre (Thames HS) beat Teena Phillips (Reparoa College) 17-8.
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TOUCH
Papakura High were the only northern school to claim a title at the keenly-fought national championships in Rotorua. and, they came very close to making it a double.
The Papakura girls won the division one title in a cliff-hanger edging home 9-8 over a spirited Otaki College.
The Papakura mixed team won by that same scoreline over Tangaroa College in their division one semifinal but were thwarted in the final in another one-point thriller against Palmerston North's Queen Elizabeth College getting home 6-5.
Rotorua BHS had the most decisive win of the three division one finals beating Hamilton BHS 7-4.
* This is the last College Sport for the year. It will return in February.
