Tauranga school wins three placings in Jump Jam national

St Mary's school's Year 4 to 8 boys' celebrate their win at the 2019 Jump Jam national schools competition with Jump Jam creator Brett Fairweather. Photo / Supplied

St Mary's School students have plenty of reasons to jump for joy after winning three titles at the 2019 Jump Jam national schools competition.

Five teams from St Mary's compromising at a total of 66 students competed at the North Island finals of the Jump Jam national championships at the Holy Trinity Church yesterday.

The scores of the winners of the South Island finals held on November 2 were compared with the North Island winners to determine the overall national titleholders.

One of three St Mary's longstanding coaches Kim Artus said he could not be prouder of the school's students achievements after all their hard work.

"Our students really shone on stage and our school is once again the most successful in New Zealand earning four titles yesterday, adding to our previous record of 14."

The Year 4 to 8 boys' team made up of a Year 3 to 6 age group students who called themselves "Wastelanders" and performed a Mad Max-themed routine were first in the North Island and first in New Zealand.

"Our Year 4 to 6 extreme open team Wildcats jump jamming to I Want It All from the High School Musical 2 movie also placed first in the North Island final and first in NZ with a crazy high score of 99.9 out 100."

The school's Years 1 to 4 Troupers team jumping to Dancing Queen placed second behind Waikato's Tamahere School.

"We had two teams in the extreme section which is the top division and extremely competitive," Artus said.

The boys also received an outstanding sportsmanship award and all five teams received a number of excellence and distinction certificates for creativity, costuming, presentation, and synchronicity, he said.

Artus puts the school's success down to a combination of the coaching, dedication and tenacity and the effort put in by all the parents with costuming and logistics.

"Our students started preparing for the nationals at the beginning of term 2 and they practised twice a week before school and some weekends."

Artus said last weekend Waihopai School from Invercargill took out the Year 4 to 6 extreme section in the South Island with a score of 99.49 out of a potential 106.

"We didn't think we could beat that score but our students did," he said.

Fifty teams were involved in seven sections of the finals from all over the North Island.