Wanganui High School and Collegiate won their second titles, and Collegiate also achieved a milestone in the premier eights races, as the Maadi Cup secondary schools rowing regatta wrapped up at Lake Ruataniwha near Twizel on Saturday.
High School 17-year-old Sarah Gray claimed her second gold of the regatta, teaming up with Claire Jordan to win the U18 girls' double sculls, while Collegiate's U17 girls' coxed four (Tessa Leenards, Paparangi Hipango, Bella Blackburn, Nichole Gillespie and cox Henry Witters) comfortably beat arch-rivals Rangi Ruru in their final. Collegiate's No2 crew was sixth in that event.
Later in the day it was the eights' turn, with Collegiate finishing second and third respectively in the senior girls' and boys' finals, the first time the two crews have made the podium together at the same regatta.
The Maadi Cup, won by the senior boys' eights, went to hot favourites Hamilton Boys' High School, while Rangi Ruru had to hold off a strong challenge from Collegiate to win the girls' event and lift the Jubilee Cup.
Collegiate coach Fiona Symes said she was "extremely proud" of Collegiate's performances at the regatta, which resulted in two gold medals, three silver and two bronze.
"We have exceeded all expectations and we're all really happy," she said. "It's amazing, not many schools can come back with that amount of medals, can they?
"By the time you get to finals half the boat park's loaded and that sort of shows you how lucky you are even to make the final."
Symes said the U17 girls coxed four had also exceeded expectations, coming from behind to beat Rangi Ruru by two boat lengths. "Rangi Ruru are a fast-starting crew and they had clear water on us at the 1000m, but the girls really dug in and just mowed them down, similar to what the U18 girls four did, although they got second in that one.
"We didn't go in with the fastest time. I think we were fourth fastest going into the final, but we didn't have a tough heat so I thought we'd at least get on the podium, but to get gold is just great."
Later on, Symes thought she might be seeing a repeat in the senior girls' eights final as Collegiate put the heat on leaders Rangi Ruru.
"About the 1000m mark I thought it was all on and if we could start charging again we might have a show, but Rangi Ruru kept their heads.
"It was a steady performance in a high pressure situation. We have a couple of novices on our boat and Rangi Ruru is a very experienced crew so I knew it was going to be tough. I thought we'd have a tussle with Nelson as well, but we ended up second."
In the boys eights race, Hamilton Boys opened up an early lead on nearest rivals Christ's College, Wanganui Collegiate and Kings College but they never made headway. Kings finished second and Collegiate third.
Symes said again it had been a great effort by Collegiate in what had been a "really tough race." Collegiate boys coach Richard Austin said both eights' performances were outstanding, as was the standard of rowing overall.
"The quality of rowing at school level improves every year," he said. "I'm hugely impressed with the Hamilton programme, they've got very good coaches who are prepared to share their knowledge."
He said the size of the Collegiate boys paled in comparison to that of the Hamilton and Kings' eights, but they had still tested the favourites. "They kept them honest. It was a very gritty performance."
Wanganui Girls' College U17 coxed quad sculls finished third in their B final on Saturday.
Milestones at the Maadi
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