College sport: Huntley knock St Kentigerns off their national schools triathlon perch in New Plymouth

The Huntley School squad that made history at the 2019 National Schools Triathlon in New Plmouth at the weekend.

Huntley School has ended a 15-year monopoly at the National Schools Triathlon in New Plymouth at the weekend.

The collective score of their athletes was enough to win Overall Best School title knocking St Kentigern from Auckland off its perch after a 15-year dominance.

Huntley team captain Isabel Melville and Tyler Smith hold the Overall Best Schools trophy aloft.

The small Rangitikei school open to Year 3 to Year 8 students took 21 atheltes to compete against far larger schools with secondary school and intermediate age athletes ontheir teams.

Huntley deputy headmaster Gareth Wood said the team collectively won six gold, three silver and two bronze to take the overall title.

"Because we were up against schools with secondary and intermediate age athletes we needed to do really well in the junior grades and that's just what we did," Wood said.

"I'm really proud of how we performed as was headmaster Sam Edwards. St Kents have had a monopoly on it for the last 15 years."

Held on same course as the World Triathlon Cup, which was on the Sunday, there were individual races, team races, and supersprints — which is teams that tag each other while doing part of a triathlon each.

"We have been competing for the last six years and have gone close in the past," Wood said.

"Two years ago when it was held in Whanganui we finished second overall and last year in Nelson we were third. There were some fine individual performances, but it was in the team events we dominated."

Huntley's performances:

Gold -
U12 Boys Team relay
U13 Boys Team relay
U13 Girls Team relay
U12 Boys Team Tag
U12 Mixed Team Tag
U13 Girls Team Tag

Silver
U12 Girls Relay
U13 Girls Team relay
U13 Boys Team Tag

Bronze
U12 Girls Relay
U12 Girls Team Tag