Tauranga Girls' College
The weather hasn't been great for sport in the past week, but it hasn't stopped our girls from competing well as they always do. The national surf lifesaving champs were held in Gisborne over the weekend and produced some good results. Amber Hyde and Vivien Conway gained bronze in the under-19 surf team, Alex Lawrence and Adriana Bird achieved bronze in the under-16 beach relay team, Adriana Moffatt got bronze in the under-16 surf race, and Adriana Bird got silver in the under-16 board relay.
The volleyball teams were also very busy over the weekend competing in the Bay of Plenty championships. The senior A team won against Whakatane A in the semifinal on Sunday morning after topping their pool. They then played Bethlehem College in the final and after losing the first set dominated the rest of the game to become Bay champs for the third year in a row.
They will be seeded No 1 at the nationals next week, heading to Palmerston North to defend their title. The senior B team had an exciting win against Mount Maunganui College A to finish fifth in the Bay so they will also be heading off to nationals next week, an excellent result for a B team. Senior D finished 13th and the Senior C finished 19th in the Bay.
At the Waikato-Bay of Plenty athletics championships held over the weekend we had some great success, winning the intermediate 4x100m relay. Amy Robinson won the intermediate girls' long jump and placed second in the 100m and 200m. Abby Goldie placed first in the intermediate 100m and 200m with Brooke Somerfield second in the long jump and third in 100m. The Bitcheno sisters did well, with Jessica first in 800m intermediate girls and Samatha second in 200m and third in 100m junior girls. Isabella Kirk placed second in the 3000m in intermediate girls and Olivia Hines second in junior girls. Amelia Forrest won the junior high jump, with Shannon Va'a winning the intermediate shot put and Makayla Daysh third in senior shot put.
Bethlehem College
In a game that swung like a pendulum, the Bethlehem College first XI cricket lost to Otumoetai on Saturday in the last over. Batting first, Bethlehem College struggled to 38-4 before recovering to 216-9 thanks to a magnificent 117 by Bede Murray and a fine supporting 35 from Chase Raleigh.
Otumoetai batted well to reach the target. Bethlehem College remains at the top of the Baywide first XI competition with a crucial game this weekend against Katikati.
Over the past few weeks our junior and intermediate grade cricketers have also performed well with Josh Verwey, Henry Petit, Matt Davis, Nick Varley and Sam Averill all batting well and Matt Davis also producing an outstanding bowling display.
Last weekend the New Zealand surf lifesaving championship was held. Hamish Smith was part of the team that won both the under-19 beach relay and the open beach relay, a result which saw them recognised for the best team performance. Jessica Miller also had some fantastic results in the under 16-age group. She won gold in the surf race and the taplin relay, silver in the board relay, the board rescue and the tube rescue and bronze in the ski race.
With these outstanding results, she was selected for the under-20 New Zealand world squad. Jessica and Hamish will be heading to Australia next Monday to compete in the Australian surf lifesaving nationals.
Bethlehem College has recently had some of its students compete in the New Zealand swimming national agegroup champs. Sarah Greaves achieved a personal best in the 100m and 200m under-17/18 backstroke. Sarah is going to the opens competition next week which acts as the national Olympic trials this year. Jessica Miller also competed in the 16-year-old age group where she was placed in the top 10 in seven events, including a bronze in the 200m butterfly, fourth in the 400m and the 800m freestyle and top 10 places in the 200m freestyle, 200m IM, 400m IM and 100m breaststroke.
Our senior A volleyball team finished second in the Bay of Plenty secondary school competition. In the semifinal they had an exciting three-set win over Otumoetai senior A. In the final against Tauranga Girls College senior A they lost in a close four set game, winning the first but not able to finish the job in the next sets.
Molly Anning had an outstanding performance, winning the last point in the first set of the final by putting her body on the line and hurting her ankle. The team along with our senior boys' team and three other girls' teams are off to the New Zealand secondary school nationals next week. - Kelsey Randrup (Bethlehem College sports captain).
Aquinas College
Siblings Kathryn and Matt Stewart had a winning weekend at the national surf lifesaving championships in Gisborne.
Kathryn came home with three impressive placings in the under-19 division where she won the taplin relay, second in the board relay and second in the board rescue.
Meanwhile, Matt did his big sister proud, scoring a first in the board relay, and first in the board race in the under-16 division.
It was also a big weekend for Dannielle O'Connor, Aquinas College sports committee co-leader, who scored a second and two thirds in her under-19 events. Dannielle was second in the taplin relay and third in both the surf race and board rescue. She is also a member of the NZ development squad.
Georgia Childs and Grace Eglinton also gained top placings, with Georgia third in the sprint relay and Grace second in the tube rescue.
Tauranga Boys' College
An exciting week for Tauranga Boys' College as tournament week is just around the corner.
March is the first inter-school competition for the Tauranga Boys' College clay target senior teams for 2012. They took two teams to the Auckland meet in Pukekohe where 105 shooters competed in the competition. Although the scores were not brilliant they did reasonably well considering it is the first time the new team had competed together.
Unfortunately there were no perfect scores but Brody Clark (captain) was only three points from a perfect score for the day and managed to dominate the points score competition and claimed the highest overall score, earning him the No 1 shot for the day. Jake Sorrenson managed to put his stamp on the best score for the first year shooter.
Tauranga Boys' College's teams pointscore was a bit worrying for a while but somehow they managed to slip into first place, cleaning out the teams' event on a score of 272/300.
Our first XI football squad has been working hard on and off the pitch over the past few weeks. On Saturday, a large group of players and parents participated in a working bee arranged by the coaches as a teambuilding exercise designed to encourage ownership of Southey Field, where all first XI fixtures are played.
In cricket, Tauranga Boys' second XI beat Katikati handily, Tauranga Boys' Wanderers beat Tauranga Boys' College Lords by six runs, Edgbaston slaughtered Bethlehem College second XI and Tauranga Boys' College Sabina squeaked past Katikati by one run.
Tauranga Boys' senior A touch team competed in the Bay of Plenty regional tournament at Otumoetai last Sunday. Although the team has many new players it was bolstered by the return of Carlos Savage, Dylan Fifita and rep player Tyler Bidois. After easy wins against Edgecumbe College (14-0) and Aquinas (8-1) the team finished on top of their pool.
The semifinal against Western Heights High was a good game that they managed to win 6-3. Heights have been absent from the boys' division for many years so it was great to have them come through as a competitive side. The final against Rotorua Boys' High School was a one-sided affair with the team from the Lakes winning 6-3.
Our tennis team travelled to Hamilton to compete in this year's Super 8. Day one provided an easy start to the tournament with comfortable wins over Hamilton Boys' High School and Hastings Boys' High School. They then had to beat a strong Palmerston North Boys' team to win their pool. The semifinal saw Tauranga Boys' meet an in-form New Plymouth Boys' team.
All four singles players had superb matches, going out to an unbeatable 4-0 lead. In a repeat of last year's final it was Tauranga Boys' College against Hamilton Boys' High School. The singles were shared 2-2 and unfortunately Hamilton won the No 2 doubles, and with a set in hand was then unable to lose on countback. The team - Nick Brown, Brad Currie, Jakeb Scholes, Finn Henderson and Lawrence Caridia - played exceptionally well throughout the tournament finishing second in one of the strongest fields in recent years.
In volleyball our C team's first of Saturday's two games was the weekend's most challenging with a disappointing 3-0 loss to Western Heights High senior A. However, their spirits were lifted after a 3-0 win against Western Heights senior B, with outside-hitter Jonty McCool demonstrating well-placed attacks and strong serves.
Sunday morning brought some personal competition as they faced our own senior B team. Though their team displayed some excellent skill, particularly Barney Tanner and Jack Sears in defence, senior B managed a 3-0 win. Against Mount Maunganui College senior A we lost 3-0.
Finally, congratulations to Tauranga Boys' College students who recently competed at the surf lifesaving nationals in Gisborne.
Under-16: surf race: gold medal Cameron Hayes, board relay: silver medal to Perry Farrell and Andre Lee, surf teams race: silver to Perry Farrell, Cameron Hayes, Matthew Hyde and Andre Lee, taplin relay: gold medal, Matthew Hyde and Cameron Hayes, silver medal to Perry Farrell and Andre Lee.
Under-19: men's taplin relay silver medal, Cameron Witney.
Otumoetai College
Our first cricket boys played against Bethlehem, the only unbeaten team in the competition. Playing on our new grass wicket we were hoping for some home ground advantage. Early success with the ball had Bethlehem 4-38 and it was looking good for us. That didn't last, with Bede Roe (105) and Chase Raleigh (33) staying at the crease to put on a partnership of 105 runs, nearly half of their 216 run total. Sanjeev Mistry took 4-35 for us.
In the ensuing runs chase some great bowling from Dylan Wadsworth (2-30) saw us lose two early wickets, with a score 7-2 after five overs. Things didn't get much better with Matt Coles (2-36) taking the next wicket and we were 47 for 4 in the 13th.
Sanjeev Mistry (44) steadied the chase and Julian Bradley and Tim Klyen put on a partnership of 70.
With Julian's dismissal for 56 the score was 185 with three batsmen left to come. Then we were down to our last pair, with three balls left and still needing five runs. No 11 batsman Nathan Wilson scored a quick single before Scott Wilson pulled the ball over square leg for a match winning boundary.
Our girls' rugby sevens team played in a local warmup tournament leading up to North Islands in the weekend. Rhyana Whaiapu and Kate Hendry showed their skills in leading this young team.
Sam Barnett competed at the nationals 420 sailing in Lyttelton this week. Following on from a good performance at the Sail Auckland regatta in February, Sam and his sailing partner Ben Caundle finished a creditable 6th overall and were 5th youth team. Sailing over four days with 16 boats from around the country, conditions were very challenging with heavy winds and chop on two days.
Jessica Kerkmeester and Mary Mitchell competed at the national Horse of the Year show, the biggest show in the southern hemisphere. Jessica was third in the 1m Pony of the Year championship and was a member of the Bay of Plenty Pony Club team which placed seventh equal on her pony Spot Me. Mary won the open Horse 1.10m class on Jumping Jack Splash, was second in the open horse 1.15m class and sixth in the open horse 1.10m class on horse Pay Day NZPH.
Mary is ranked in the top 10 in the SJNZ 1.15m Horse Equitation Development Medal class and continues her excellent results for this season.
Katikati College
We have had a busy two weeks with interschool athletics, Waikato/Bay of Plenty athletics and our school triathlon as well as all the winter sports.
We had a successful day at Thames Valley athletics with Emma Shanley McDonald winning the intermediate girls' shot put and third n the discus, Uliti Uilou winning the junior boys' triple jump, Jack Gentil winning senior boys' shotput and Seini Kava winning the senior girls shot put. Ben Tavae was third in the intermediate boys' long jump and high jump.
Emma went onto compete at the Waikato-Bay of Plenty athletics and was second in shot put.
We held our school triathlon on a beautiful day here in Katikati. It was an outstanding performance from Thomas Darling who was overall winner, coming out of the water in the middle of the field. Girls' overall champion was Lucy Newlands.