William Smart, Senior Sportsman of the year
Speed, endurance and sheer talent earned athletes William Smart and Jessica van Bentum top honours at the annual Wanganui Secondary Schools Sports Awards yesterday in the Prince Edward Auditorium at Collegiate.
Talented Wanganui Collegiate School runner Smart was named senior Sportsman of the Year, while High School's van Bentum earned the senior Sportswoman of the Year title for her sterling efforts with inline skating. Unfortunately, van Bentum was unable to attend yesterday's ceremony.
During the year Smart evolved even further, finishing third at the Oceania championships in the senior men's 100m and 200m events and is the current New Zealand under-20 200m champion.
Coach Alec McNab has always held Smart in high esteem as an athletic and predicted the youngster, highly regarded on the national and international athletics field, was "going places".
"William is only just beginning to realise how good he is. He has been included in the extended squad for the Commonwealth Games - he's a very talented runner," McNab said.
Meanwhile, van Bentum had a season to remember placing sixth at the World Inline Speed Skating Championships in the 1000m junior girls event and is the current New Zealand open women's 1000m record holder.
The senior team award went to kayakers Max Brown and Aiden Nossiter from Wanganui High School.
The pair were the New Zealand representatives at the junior world championships competing in the K2 1000m events and travelled to the Czech Republic earlier this year to win that country's national 1000m K2 title. They are also the current New Zealand national K2 1000m champions.
Tennis ace Kyle Butters from Wanganui High School was named junior Sportsman of the Year on the back of his performances in ITF (International Tennis Federation) competition. Butters is ranked second in New Zealand in his age group on ITF ratings and is in the top 10 in the world, while he also won the national Maori Men's title.
Junior Sportswoman of the Year is yet another inline skater, Rebecca Smith who finished 30th of 79 at the World Marathon Championships in China.
The Junior Team of the Year went to the Wanganui Collegiate Y9 junior girls' cross country squad.
The team, Alice Bird, Jazmin Phillips, Kayla Hanright, Megan Mackay, Rosie Stewart-Muir and Billie Gibbs, won the 3 and 6-to-score event in the New Zealand Secondary Schools' road race during the season. During the season Myah Jex-Blake and Georgina Hobson were added to the team and made a valuable impact on the overall performance.
The Coach of the Year title was shared by Collegiate's Jack Lupton and Ruapehu College's Tiere Walker-Rapana.
Lupton was a member of the Collegiate 1st XV who stepped in to assist the under-14 team. Judges rated his patience and skills as major attributes.
Walker-Rapana, the deputy head girl at Ruapehu, put her own time into coaching the basketball team and travelling to Wanganui for games every Thursday and Friday night.
Cullinane's Connor Hill was named Official of the Year for his involvement in the New Zealand secondary Schools' touch championships, U15/17 national championships and the Maori touch nationals.
The judges also gave recognition to a number of people who made a significant contribution to secondary school sport.