Rowing: Gold for Whanganui Collegiate's Blake Hogan and Leo Hanna at North Island Secondary School champs

Blake Hogan and Leo Hanna know how to find their way to the top of the podium at the North Island Secondary School championships.

Whanganui Collegiate's Blake Hogan and Leo Hanna have done it again with another gold medal at the North Island Secondary School (NISS) Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro over the weekend.

Nearly 1900 competitors from 99 schools converged on the lake from Friday through to Sunday, including representatives from Collegiate, Whanganui High, Girls College, Cullinane and Nga Tawa Diocesan School.

Blake and Hanna, multiple time medallists of all colours at Under 16-17 level, won the boys Under 18 double sculls gold with a 6m 49.39s time in the A Final, five seconds clear of the Takapuna Grammar pair, with the St Peter School from the Waikato in third.

It was the high water mark of a regatta where Collegiate also won four silver medals and four bronze medals.

Outside of Collegiate's efforts, Cullinane College made the podium with a bronze medal from the boys Under 18 novice quad of stroke Tayne Perkins-Waugh, Daniel Smith, Leif Henning, Calais Edwards and cox Shannon Hill - finishing behind Wellington College and Huanui College crews.

Whanganui High rowers made eight A Finals, their best finishes being two fifth placings in the girls Under 18 singles sculls and boys Under 17 coxed quad sculls respectively.

They also made six B Finals, while Cullinane had four at the level, and Whanganui Girls College had two.

Hogan's mother and former world champion Philippa Baker-Hogan took rowers from five Taranaki schools to Karapiro under the Clifton Rowing Club banner, which is also part of the Whanganui Rowing Association, and her contingent won a silver, a bronze and made six A Finals.

Collegiate's silver medals started with the girls Under 17 coxed four of stroke Holly Lennox, Alyana du Fresne, Jaime Maybery, Margy Hazelhurst and cox Bella Stevenson-Watt.

Matching them was the girls Under 15 coxed quad sculls of stroke Gretel Murphy, Emily McKinlay, Annabel Symes, Samantha Hayes and cox Bridget Jones-Long.

The girls Under 18 novice double sculls of Bridgitte O'Leary and Charlotte Gillespie were also podium runnersup, as were the girls Under 16 coxed four, which saw double silver for the stroke Murphy and the cox Jones-Long, this time being joined by Haana Kilmister, Emily McKinlay and Tessa Norman.

Blake Hogan would covet a boys Under 18 singles sculls title, but this time had to settle for bronze behind the Takapuna Grammar representative, while being just beaten to the line for silver by the St Johns College (Hamilton) rower.

There was more success in the girls Under 18 grade, as the novice coxed quad sculls bronze was won by stroke O'Leary, Gillespie, Pip Bullock, Poppy Hobbs and cox Bella Stevenson-Watt, while the coxed quad sculls bronze was claimed by stroke Charlotte McKinlay, Phoebe Collier, Maybery, Hazelhurst and cox Stevenson-Watt.

Joining the list of multiple medal winners were du Fresne and Lennox with their bronze in the girls exhibition Under 17 coxless pair oars.