Bethlehem College
What great results for Bethlehem College at the junior and senior grades of the national secondary schools beach volleyball championships.
In the senior girls, Beniece Douch teamed up with Molly Anning. The girls won every game on Saturday and qualified for division one playoffs. On Sunday they beat Rangitoto College, Otumoetai College 2 and Westlake Girls' High School in the semifinals to reach the finals.
The final against Otumoetai College was very close, and in difficult conditions the girls were narrowly beaten and had to settle for second place. In the juniors, both Sophie Te Whiti and Alex Campbell Smith and Lauren Anning and Michaela Wooller achieved excellent results and came third and second respectively.
Our cricket team has had two good wins to start the season. Against Aquinas, Chase Raleigh (45) and Chris Johnston (48) provided the backbone of the total of 216. The BC bowling attack, led by Matt Cole and Patrick Davenport, had a comfortable victory.
Last Saturday, Rotorua Boys' provided much tougher competition. Again batting first, BC struggled to make much headway against some very tight bowling. Another solid knock by both Matt Cole (29) and Chase Raleigh (40) finally saw us reach a modest total of 132. However, with some awesome bowling and fielding the team kept the game close. Determined batting by their tailenders swung the game to Rotorua. However, in yet another twist to this gripping game - and with just five runs required for a Rotorua win - two stunning catches by Bede Murray off the bowling of Dylan Ramohitaj snatched victory for BC! In junior cricket, congratulations to the following players who have made the Bay of Plenty honours list: Caleb Richards who got three wickets for five runs, Sam Averill, Jonathan McLeay and Oliver Harrop who all scored over 30 runs.
Congratulations to William Spear who won a silver medal for his age group in the Taupo Epic 5km Lake Swim. Anna Burnett competed in the New Zealand juniors swimming champs last weekend and swam the breaststroke leg for Bay of Plenty in the medley relay where they finished second in the northern region.
In athletics, many school records have been broken. Luke Davidson has been in great form, throwing 52m and beating his old record in the javelin by 5m and 42.82m in the discus, which was 2m further than his old record. Emily Johnston in the junior girls 300m beat the school record with a time of 47.69 seconds and Matthew Connolly beat the senior boys' 200m record with a time of 23.68s. Michael Booth broke both the senior boys' triple jump record (12.65m) and the long jump (6.27m).
Both Hamish Miller and younger brother Daniel competed at the national under-14 surf lifesaving champs held at the Mount. Hamish made numerous finals, winning silver medals in the under-13 board race and ironman race, gold in the under-14 Cameron relay team (swim leg), 4th in board rescue, 5th in beach flags and 7th in the surf swim. Daniel also made numerous finals, winning silver in the under-12 tube rescue, gold in the under-12 Cameron relay team (swim leg) and 4th in the surf swim. Older sister Jessica competed in the final of the Sonic ironwoman series, finishing 6th after leading going into the 3rd and final ski leg, a top result considering she was competing in a open women's race. - Bethany Garland, Sports Council.
Tauranga Girls'
Although it has been a rainy week, sport at Tauranga Girls' College continues as always.
The equestrian team competed in the pouring rain last Wednesday at the Bay of Plenty Area secondary schools team showjumping. Georgina Wratten-Lowe got a first and second, Olivia Pogan was third and fourth, Evey Sjardin came first in a final round and the team were fourth overall.
The senior A volleyball team beat Te Puke A, Whakatane A and Trident B in the Bay of Plenty preliminary games for a placing in the Nationals. The senior A team has qualified in the top five whilst our other teams also performed very creditably.
We competed well in the senior Bay of Plenty tennis championships last Friday. In division one, Anna Mahon came third in the singles, with Beeke Dommel fourth. In doubles, Jacinta Coleman and Nikki Heerschap took out first place, with Ashleigh Ross and Poppy Thomason second. In division two, Makayla Lawrence and Bria Merritt came third in the doubles, with Bailey Pompey and Kendra Walker fourth. - Bria Wollaston
Te Puke HS
Athletics: Remember that amazing weather we had last week? Well, right around that time was when we held Athletics Day for 2012. It was a great day as everyone came dressed in their house colours and competed in field and track events to earn house points and try to smash our school records. Fifteen students did exceptionally well and will be going to the Bay secondary schools athletics day. The most impressive student to watch on the day was Dalton Henderson who cleared a massive 1.75m at the high jump, almost as tall as himself!
Volleyball: This season kicked off straight away with our first competition games being held last weekend. It was a tough weekend as all of our teams had a rough start but now that they are warmed up we will see how they go this weekend. The senior boys A team will be playing at Te Puke High School gym this Saturday. This year we have an amazing number of students interested, with three boys teams and one girls but we are always looking to expand our volleyball programme.
Cricket: Our cricket season has started off strongly with our boys winning their first two games against Aquinas and Katikati. Our girls team has also started off really strongly and they are playing very well together. Keep up the good work.
Waterpolo: Our junior girls' team is on a roll, playing well together and coming up with a few wins. Their next game will be at Baywave tonight at 5:30pm where they will take on Bethlehem College. Let's hope for another win.
Tauranga Boys'
This weekend Tauranga Boys' College were fairly successful on the sporting stage.
The Tauranga Boys' senior A volleyball team started their journey to nationals on Saturday with Bay of Plenty grading. The grading stage is to determine the strength of teams by putting them into pools of five.
On Saturday the A team encountered Otumoetai C and Kawerau College, winning both games comfortably and top of our pool. This meant having a hard crossover game against Western Heights to see who would go straight to top five in the Bay. Western Heights turned out to be too much for us, winning in two sets. Nathan Rona was the standout player of the day with his massive spikes.
Losing in the crossover game meant we had to come back to the TECT Arena on Sunday. If we were to win all three games we would be in the top five. We won both of the pool games against Western Heights B and Otumoetai B, playing our own B team and winning in two sets. Standout player was Keanu White, putting the opposition into disarray with his setting.
Our senior C team reached the second five by winning three out of six games against Te Puke A twice and Whakatane.
In rowing the team competed in the KR13 regatta which is the third and final before the North Island champs in March. The under-17 crew took first place in the under-18 double, under-17 and under-18 quad and under-18 lightweight four. They also took placings in the under-17 and under-18 single sculls, coming second and third.
Our under-18 crew made the A final for the boys' eight, the most prestigious race in the regatta and secondary school rowing in general. This was a significant highlight for the squad as it has been more than four years since Tauranga Boys' have had a crew in the A final.
In cricket, the second XI beat Mount Gold by seven runs while the fourth XI lost to Aquinas College firsts with a standout performance by Josh Honey (28). Lords lost by two wickets to Otumoetai College second XI and Sabina beat Bethlehem College.
Congratulations to: James Puchner, Year 9, who won the under-13 boys' beach sprint last weekend at the Ocean Athletes; Nick Brown, who is the Bay of Plenty secondary schools tennis singles champ, and Jakeb Scholes and Brad Currie who are doubles champs.
Mt Maunganui
What a tremendous effort and results for our under-14 surf lifesaving athletes from last weekend's four-day national championships Oceans 12 held at Mount main beach.
With over 700 competitors from all over New Zealand competing for coveted national titles, the competition was always going to be tough but we can boast three new national champs with Malia Josephson winning gold in the under-13 board race and gold in the blue ribbon event, the under-13 diamond race.
Maia Bryant is the new under-13 beach sprint champion and finished second in the diamond race. Kane Sefton is the gold medallist in the under-14 run-swim-run. Other individuals with podium finishes were Liam Stephenson second, Eva Gibson second and Emma Marumaru-Flynn third in beach flags. Malia and Maia finished second and third in the under-13 run-swim-run with Malia second in the under-13 surf race and Eva Gibson third in the under-14 division. In team events Libby Moore teamed up with Jess Gadsby (Otumoetai) to win the national title in board rescue. Other team medallists were Jake Cowdrey, Sam Johnston, Justin Pickering, Kane Sefton, Libby Moore, Georgia Reardon-Nikara, Georgia Aitken, Malia Josephson and Maia Bryant.
School athletics were held this week with some outstanding performances and records tumbling in the senior boys' javelin with Danny Kayes throwing 55.6m. If that wasn't enough Danny broke the senior boys' shotput record with a throw of 14.3m. Danny also won the 100m sprint and discus for senior boys.
Also in record-breaking form was Simone Couvee, who holds the new senior girls' javelin record of 30.71m. Outstanding Year 10 performer on the day was Emma Marumaru-Flynn who won the 100m, 200m, long jump, discus and shotput in the junior girls.
Sophia Millar won all her track events in the senior girls, as did Rochelle Newdick in the senior girls' field events. Franqui Leach showed her strength and throwing technique to win all three throwing events in intermediate girls.
Otumoetai College
Otumoetai were winners of the Bay of Plenty secondary schools showjumping competition held at Whakatane. Congratulations to the team of eight riders who were defending their 2011 title - Mary Mitchell (captain), Alex Coughlin, Jessica Kerkmeester, Hayley Hawkless, Sophie Tingy, Paige Harris, Finn Maloney and Megan Gallear. They scored a total of 72 points for the win, with the second placed team on 38. Individual rider results were: Ring one (1.05m): Mary placed first, first and fifth. Ring two (90cm): Jessica placed second and fifth, Sophie placed third. Ring three (80 cm): Hayley placed third and eighth, Paige placed second and fourth.
Bradley Nixon has continued to impress with his board sailing. Winning the national champs under-19 division of the RS:X windsurfing class coupled with a win at the ISAF Sail Auckland regatta meant an impressive double elite victory.
Our rowers had a successful weekend at the Mighty River Power junior regatta. Holly McNabb and Kendall Hofland had a notable performance in the girls' under-16 double with fifth, with Holly third in the B final of her single. Brad Borren and Nicholas Pilbrow had an exceptional performance to convincingly win the B final of their under-15 double. The girls' under-15 quad had an outstanding race to place fifth in the A final and Kate Hendry with Suraya Thomas placed third in the B final of the under-18 novice double.
The Bay schools tennis champs were held at the Papamoa courts last Friday. Best results were Kieran McSweeney/Richard Garlick second in the division one doubles. Mika Hagiwara won the division two singles with Hiroto Yamada third in the division two boys' singles.
Our first XI played cricket in the Gillette Cup T20 competition at Blake Park on Tuesday. Playing Katikati first up they secured the 99 runs required to win the match, followed by a one-run loss to Bethlehem College saw our team needing 113 runs.
On Saturday the first XI defeated Trident High School and the second XI defeated Tauranga Boys' College Lords, with the third XI losing to Bay of Plenty development.
The secondary schools indoor volleyball season got under way with 40 teams competing for their seeding spot for the Bay champs and nationals. Our senior A boys and girls competed strongly, finishing in first equal. Boys B are looking strong, boys C were 16th equal, the girls' B team placed 10th, with our C team 17th and D team 11th.