OTUMOETAI
The inaugural co-ed WBOP Secondary Schools Rugby Tournament was hosted on our grounds last Saturday.
This new initiative was supported by six teams and played in perfect conditions. Our 1st XV played against Te Puke on Saturday, losing narrowly in a well-contested game.
Troy Webber was strong at lineouts and Jamal McGruer scored a good try after applying pressure to the deep kick to the Te Puke winger.
The 1st XV were too strong for Kawerau and ran in 10 tries. Mark Nicholls had a strong day and carried the ball well.
The finals day at Baypark on Tuesday was a well-contested game, with the Bethlehem team taking out the trophy.
Our hockey girls' 1st XI hosted a pre-season game against the strong St Kentigerns team. We lost 3-0 but a good start to what will be a busy season.
The Senior A boys' basketball hosted Howick for a pre-season match with a very exciting game.
After a good preseason buildup, all the athletes were eager to get into a game.
With a chance to take the win on the final buzzer, the last play didn't go our way and we lost 79-77. Our U17 basketball rep players compete in their premierships this weekend.
Congratulations to Gene Bruce, Theo Johnston, Dwayne Jones, Angelica Tuhou and Mahi Brown.
The four elite netball teams played in a preseason tourney at Harbourside which was a good last chance at selection as well for these athletes.
Our sailing team competed at the BOPSS event and came second.
Our team of 19 students attended the national secondary schools mountain bike championships at Levin recently.
The final downhill run on Sunday was raced in extremely slippery and muddy conditions, challenging riders' skills to the max. Otumoetai College stood out as one of the highest-achieving schools with eight students placing in the top 10.
We were proud to see Kirk Fishe and Kieran De Grey on the podium for the downhill racing. Kirk was second in the U19 class, and Kieran second in the U16. Daniel Lawton had a 7th placing, Jack Dodd 9th, Daniel Sinclair a 4th and Matthew Lawton a 7th.
The BOP Intercollegiate Golf team of Chris Charlton, Neville Edwards, Andrew Jackson and Cody Joss competed in Taupo yesterday.
Chris was outstanding, with the best individual score.
The following volleyballers have been selected in the WBOP team for the upcoming interprovincial champs: Amy Hunter, Alyse Barclay, Melissa Cairns, Aneta Buckley, Andy Bray, Griffin Muller and James Gilling.
BETHLEHEM
Congratulations to Karina Radley for winning the Western Bay of Plenty Secondary School Sports Awards for February.
Karina's outstanding run of successes in kayaking and surf lifesaving have also gained her the Smith Sport Shoes "Sports Girl of the month".
Other lifesaving success has come with the outstanding results last weekend from Jessica Miller, who gained a silver and bronze medal in the Australian Lifesaving Championships.
Luke Davison participated in the Athletics New Zealand championships and received a bronze medal in the 110m hurdles and javelin.
Also competing at a high level alongside Luke at the North Island track and field championships held in Hamilton were three other Bethlehem College competitors, Matthew Connolly, Michael Booth and Alice McCafferty.
All four students competed well in their age-group events, Luke taking home second in the 110m hurdles and third in the shot put, Matthew Connolly was fifth in the 400m and triple jump. This is a high level of competition so we congratulate them for their hard work.
Sophie Te Whaiti and Olivia Kameta were selected among 16 athletes to receive scholarships for the Tauranga City Basketball's high-performance programme this year.
Both girls are young at only 13 and 14 and will be two of the youngest basketballers included and will play alongside other top players up to the age of 19.
The Western Bay of Plenty Year 7 and 8 Swimming Championships were held recently and Bethlehem College sent a large team to compete.
We gained first in 14 events, second in 10 events and third in 11 events.
Our senior girls' volleyball teams returned home from the New Zealand Secondary Schools National Volleyball Championships held in Palmerston North.
The senior A girls' team competed in division 1 and after a tough journey through a hard crossover pool they managed to reach the quarter-finals. They played Tauranga Girls and after a hard fight unfortunately lost.
They then had a convincing win against Aranui HS, which allowed them to play their final game for 5th and 6th against Manurewa HS.
Again they played well and with victory they ended up taking 5th place. The senior B girls competed in the fifth division and after dominating the early games reached the semifinal for their division.
Success in their semifinal saw them compete against Nelson College senior C in the final, where they were again successful.
The Bethlehem College C team were placed 12th in the same division.
In the Maadi Cup regatta at Lake Karapiro, our rowers made three "B" finals and one "A" final.
Congratulations to Teagan Adams and Taylor Cooney and, especially, to Bethany Glenn and Sarah Renouf who just missed out on a medal, coming 4th in the girls' U18 novice double sculls.
The 1st XV rugby team have also started the season with success. At the Otumoetai rugby festival last weekend, they beat Aquinas College and then the Mount College to reach the final. Against Te Puke, on a warm afternoon at Blake Park, they ran out worthy winners 24-12 to set their season off in great style.
Bethlehem College held its annual tennis championships on Wednesday.
The tournament was held in great weather at the Otumoetai Tennis Courts.
In the senior girls' draw, Valentino Pedriel played a controlled game against Samantha Tibshraeny to take first place.
In the year 9-10 boys' final, Tyler Patterson beat Hyun Jun Nam. Jackson Currie outplayed Henry Nam to secure the intermediate boys' title, while Analise Wang placed first in the intermediate category.
The cricket season came to a close with the year 7-8 boys' Milo Cup team placed 5th.
The team had a slow start to the year but finished off strongly to end in a placing that all the boys can be proud about.
Finally, the school was visited by a group of elite athletes from the Hong Kong Institute of Sport.
The group had two top martial artists, one table tennis player and one sailor. They attended rugby training, where they gave the boys a demonstration in martial arts and also table tennis.
The boys learnt a lot from the athletes, who surprised everyone with the amount of training they said they did every day of the week.
Hannah Marshall and Matt Smalberger - Sports Captains
AQUINAS
Aquinas College's Under-16 surf lifesaving team competed at the BOP Secondary Schools' Surf Lifesaving Championships last week.
The team performed well to place third overall in the team event.
The team comprised Grace Eglinton, Tahlia Trembath, Georgia Childs, Anneke Grogan, Lauren Dennehy, Seth Merrett, Miles Farrant, Matthew Kontze, Mickey Ellis and Mathew Stewart.
Aquinas Year 12 students, and talented swimmers Dannielle O'Connor and Kathryn Stewart coach the team, which comprises Year 9,10 and 11 students.
MOUNT MAUNGANUI
A jubilant Kodi Harman came back from the SLS Aussie nationals with a gold medal for the U17 beach flags.
This achievement wraps up an outstanding surf-sport season and track season for Kodi, who was named the BOP secondary schools sports boy last month. Congratulations to Cara Ryan and Callum Knox who also competed in Aussies and made semifinals.
Congratulations to Caleb Mattison-Smith and Mitchel Kerr-Bell who have now made the U19 beach volleyball team who are travelling to Singapore in July.
Danny Hart, year 11 student, had an outstanding mountain-bike ride in the 29km Xterra race held in Rotorua, finishing 8th in the open men's division. His time was 1.41.10.
The annual school SLS champs were held in glorious conditions at Mt last week. MMC had three teams entered, with the U16 A team and U19 team finishing overall second behind a composite Tauranga girls' and boys' team. Some great individual wins in some of the events, with both teams winning the main event, the 10-man team surf relays.
The pre-season netball tournament held at Harbourside last weekend was a great warm-up for our new-look MMC 1 girls team who won the tournament and were able to try a variety of combinations ready for the start of season.
School swimming champs from last week:
SNR BOYS: 1st Danny Kayes, 2nd Michael van der Zanden, 3rd Callum Knox
SNR GIRLS: 1st =Cara Ryan and 1st =Cora Zwiesigk, 2nd Ashley Cochrane
INT BOYS: 1st Ben Johnston, 2nd Mason Pickering, 3rd Jackson Edwards
INT GIRLS: 1st Michaela Aitken, 2nd =Kathryn van der Zanden and Hannah Meredith
JNR BOYS: 1st Jake Hales, 2nd Scott Miller and 3rd Ben Elisara
JNR GIRLS: 1st Libby Moore, 2nd Georgia Dobbs, 3rd Eden Craig
RECORDS:
Boys' 33 fly 16 &O = Danny Kayes 18.00secs, held in 2008 by Joe Kayes 19.07, girls' 100m breast stroke 16 &O = Cora Zwiesigk 1.23.37, held in 1987 by Paula Waterhouse 1.32.30
Our boys' golf team, coming off s win at pennants, won the gross division at the Western Heights Invitational tournament with John Campbell second in the individual boys' gross.
John is off to the World Golf Champs in South Africa as part of the Otumoetai College team next week.
TAURANGA BOYS'
Last weekend TBC 1st XI faced Ngaruawahia in the first home game of the season. We started with some good football and were unlucky not to score early on. An error saw us concede a goal just before halftime which meant we went into the break down 1-0.
After halftime we came out firing and Dan Looker scored a great goal from just outside the box to level it up. Ngaruawahia managed another streaky goal just moments later and took the lead again. We were not to go down without a fight and sub Tom Taylor equalised just after being brought on to make it 2-2.
That was the final score but it could have been different had we taken all our chances.
The 1st XV took on St Kentigern's College for their first match of the season. We did not have ideal preparation and had six players missing. Unfortunately, through poor execution of kicks and having made a lot of tackles the boys ran out of energy and the game slipped away. We went down 47-19 but we played well in patches and they showed us areas of our game that we need to work on for next time.
Our 2nd XV also played St Kent's and had a much better result, winning 23-15. The captain, Dan Howard, led by example the whole way in a tight match. A great try by Tommy Clout saw us run away with the match near the end although the visitors fought hard to the end. The coaches were happy with the final score and the boys stuck to the game plan for the full 80 minutes. It is hopefully a good sign for future matches.
Marc Dunn, Year 11, won the Bay of Plenty Ministocks last weekend and won the North Island Champs the previous weekend. A great result for Marc.
TE PUKE
Boys Football: Last weekend saw Te Puke High School's 1st XI football team travelling to Linton Park in Rotorua to compete in the Western Heights preseason tournament.
The team's first day of play featured matches with Rotorua Boys High School, Forest View and Massey High.
The match against Forest View was a highlight, with the team pulling together and finding the gaps more as the game progressed.
The final score was a 6-1 win, with Richard Ireland scoring twice and Madan Limbu scoring a hat-trick. The second day of the tournament saw the team playing on the Western Heights High School field, in amongst the carnival atmosphere of all the tournament matches in progress, including rugby and netball.
To continue the result pattern established the previous day, the team had to win their next match - and that's exactly what they did, defeating Heretaunga High by 2 goals to 1.
Overall, the tournament was a great learning experience for the players, and it was encouraging to come away with two wins from the weekend.
TAURANGA GIRLS'
Wow, we are in the last week of term one. Tauranga Girls' College has had such a great term with local, regional, North Island, national and international successes in a variety of sporting fields.
We had teams attend the Western Heights Competition on Saturday, April 9, coming out with great results.
Our football 1st XI came first, in a good final. Hockey placed second after going to sudden-death strokes in the final against Western Heights.
The equestrian team won the team event and also the individual. Riders from the team who did outstandingly well were Every Sajrdin, gaining four first placings, Georgina Wratten-Lowe, coming home with three firsts and one second and Kari Wratten-Lowe with one first and one second. It was is an outstanding effort.
In basketball, Tauranga Girls' College premier team won the Tauranga City Basketball Summer league in a extremely close final on Sunday night, triumphing 53-52.
In the Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools surf competition, Tauranga Girls' College won the U16 and U19 shields.
- Zoe Wieringa
College Sport
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