Napier Girls' High School
Cross country:
At the recent East Coast North Island Cross Country Championships in Gisborne, Napier Girls' High School competed well in all grades.
In the Year 9 girls' race, Maddie Mason ran superbly to finish third and was followed by newcomer Harriet Holt in eighth place. The team was fourth in the three-person team event.
The Junior girls were competitive with strong performances from Frances Scrimgeour and Josie Mason. The Senior girls once again excelled, with first year senior Holly Manning in third place, Roisin Pearson in fifth and Laura Smith in eighth, to win the three-person team event.
Vida Fox, Brianna Massie and Annie Creagh were the rest of the winning six-person team.
At the recent National Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships in Auckland, Maddie Mason produced an excellent run to finish 19th out of 137 starters and Harriet Holt continued to impress with 39th place.
In the Senior girls' race, Holly Manning, in her first year at this level, was a creditable 21st, Roisin Pearson 34th and Laura Smith 51st, and with Holly Edmonds, Emma Drew and Annie Creagh, they were sixth out of 13 teams in the six-person team event.
Sailing:
Year 9 student Ava Mannering recently attended the Asian Optimist Sailing Championships in Sri Lanka. She qualified by finishing third in the New Zealand Championships at Easter. Ava was the fourth girl to finish in Sri Lanka. Thirteen countries were represented at the event.
Hawke's Bay Hockey Boys' Division 1
All teams in the Hawke's Bay Secondary Schools Boys' Division 1 have played each other at least once and the league table has a clear divide between top and bottom.
Recent results have shown a huge difference in the capability of teams. The creation of competitive leagues is a discussion which needs to happen in the near future with all schools, clubs and the Hawke's Bay Hockey Association involved. It is really important that in future seasons, all teams play at a level where they can compete.
The previous week's one-sided results show the current imbalance as Hastings Boys' beat Karamu 1st XI 13-1 and Napier Boys' beat St John's 1st XI 12-0.
Hastings Boys' 1st XI played St John's College in the Division 1 grade on Wednesday and it was the former who came out on top.
Hastings Boys' had three starting players unavailable, including Central Districts under-21 representative Liam Sykes and Hawke's Bay under-18 representative Adam Wrigley.
St John's played with a lot of spirit and defended well, with Hawke's Bay under-18 player Brad Cosgrove resolute at centre-half, while the St John's goalkeeper had an excellent game.
Whilst Hastings Boys' never really got out of second gear, the difference in ability was clear.
St John's struggled to create any sustained pressure and had to play long-ball hockey.
The standard was generally poor, although there were some excellent goals.
The game fizzled out with a 5-1 win for Hastings although the margin of victory could easily have been even larger.
The highlight was probably a hard reverse pass from forward Dylan Thomas which Mitchell Bradley deflected into the top corner of the St John's net.