Tauranga Boys'
Although a few teams had byes it was business as usual for the majority of the Tauranga Boys' College teams last week.
In rugby, Tauranga Boys' first XV played Western Heights firsts, which Tauranga Boys' College won 72-0. The game started off with Connor Sylvester running the show with early line breaks and scoring the second try after the first try was scored by Dan Hollingshead. After the fast start by the boys, Western Heights just couldn't keep up and the teams went into the sheds at halftime with Tauranga Boys' College in full control.
In other games Tauranga Boys' College 4th XC beat Otumoetai second XV 30-7 and Tauranga Boys' under-15 elites were involved in a tournament last week in which they won all three of their games. The first round Bay second division opponent for the under-15 elites was Otumoetai seconds, with Tauranga BC securing a 37-7 win. Players of note were Josh Honey, Hoeroa Edwards and Brad Curry. In the second round the under-15 elites took on Tauranga Boys' fourth XV and won 38-5, before beating Aquinas seconds 44-0.
The Tauranga Boys' College crosscountry team headed to Palmerston North last Sunday looking to defend their Super 8 title and become the first school to win the event for three consecutive years after wins in New Plymouth and Tauranga. To win the Super 8 shield teams need to be consistent across all three different age groups of Year 9, junior and senior.
As the day unfolded it was obvious that 2012 was not going to bring the same success as Tauranga Boys' were outclassed, finishing the day second behind New Plymouth Boys' High School. Although we did not retain the shield we had some great individual performances across all three grades.
In the year 9 race Justin Mitchell ran strongly through the field to finish third overall. Aaron Fredheim had a superb run in juniors to claim third in front of teammates Daniel Hintz and Harrison Mossop. It was the day of third places as in the senior boys' event Michael Sutton finished with a bronze.
Last Wednesday the Tauranga Boys' first XI hockey boys had a challenging game against Tauranga Old Boys Reds. The first XI came away with the victory, winning 4-3 with leading goalscorer Joseph Lions netting two out of the four goals.
The senior A basketball team continues to display their competitive attitude. With two tough games this week, the team was up against a 2nd division men's team, RSB and local arch rivals Otumoetai College. In a hard-fought battle the team was victorious in both games, which was an astounding result for the boys.
On Friday, the team had a friendly match against Rotorua Boys' High School, which also resulted in a win, 89-54.
After a bye last week, the senior B team had a full line-up for this week's game against Bethlehem College A team. Some strong early scoring by John Gillett and Tipene Allen kept them in touch early in the game, but in the end this A team were much better than the developing B team.
On a dull Saturday afternoon, Tauranga Boys' College first XV football came up against an in-form Old Blues side at Southey Field. Tauranga Boys' were coming into the match off the back of a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Otumoetai, and Old Blues off a close 4-3 victory over Waikato Unicol. Just before halftime and with the score 0-0, after some great work down the left hand side from Jared Bailey, Jack Chaney ended up with the ball at his feet. He flicked the ball over the defender's head and volleyed the ball into the back of the net to open the scoring. But Old Blues dominated the second half and won 3-1 in a disappointing day at home for Tauranga Boys. They look ahead to Tuesday with their second national qualifier against Cambridge High School.
Bethlehem
Congratulations to Beniece Douch who has made the final squad for the New Zealand under-19 volleyball team to go to Thailand in October for the Asian championships. She has also just been awarded a Bay Trust/Sport Bay of Plenty sports scholarship.
In the recent Bay of Plenty crosscountry championships, Madison Rennie ran a great race and came second in her age group.
At the Manihera golf championships, Madison Gartner achieved first place in the girls' individual section and Mitchell Fairweather was our best net scoring boy.
At the Bay of Plenty slalom championships Claudia Paterson was second in the under-14 junior women's division.
In football, both first teams had a successful weekend. The boys had an encouraging 4-0 victory over Katikati College while the girls had an easy win over Tauranga Girls' College senior white.
In hockey, the top teams were not so successful. The boys lost narrowly to a Mount club side and the girls had a tight game against Otumoetai College. The final score of 1-1 left both teams anxious for a re-match.
The rugby team also had a close game mid-week against Te Puke and in a rather frustrating game lost narrowly 17-19.
In netball, the Open A team were successful with a strong 43-36 win over Te Puke, while the Open B team also had a good win over Te Puke 39-17. - Bethany Garland, sports council.
Tauranga Girls'
It has been a successful week of sport at Tauranga Girls' College.
At the Bay of Plenty secondary schools crosscountry championships we were well represented in all three categories. In the juniors, Olivia Hines placed third, Erin Conway sixth, Samantha Bitcheno 18th and Rose Barker 25th. The three-person team also placed third.
For intermediate girls, third place was Isabella Kirk, fifth was Jessica Bitcheno, sixth was Naomi Stewart, eighth was Kirsty Burrows, ninth was Stella Marshall and in 12th place was Talya Forward. Both the three-person and six-person teams were first. Amy Robinson placed fourth in the senior girls' division.
In football on Saturday, the third XI had a good game against Bethlehem College second XI, coming out on top 3-2. The junior A team also had a close game, drawing 4-4 with Rotorua United Legends who lead the competition at present. Our junior A team is proving to be very competitive in this senior grade and remain unbeaten.
The netball teams also did well, with the TGC League 1 team winning their game against Mount Maunganui College 57-25. TGC senior reserve had a close win against Katikati College B 35-31. Junior A won 43-25 against Otumoetai College Premier Open. TGC 10A had a good game against Katikati Development 1, winning 43-30.
Many of our hockey teams had victories this week. The junior girls beat United Girls 3-1, senior girls won 1-0 against Aquinas College second XI girls and the first XI had a convincing 5-0 win against Trident High School.
Tauranga Girls' College will be representing New Zealand at the world Schools volleyball championships in Toulon, France, from June 1-10. The team is: Shemaiah Thomas, Simone Te Kani, Alice Bain, Ella Duggan, Maddy Scott, Stephanie Gunn, Ariana Abbott, Meikura Williams and Renee Penny (Year 12), Kerryn Schroder, Alex Lawrence, Amanda Somerfield (Year 11). Coach: Allen Satiu. Teacher in charge: Tamara Patete.
Aquinas
Aquinas College came away from the Bay of Plenty/Mid Island secondary schools crosscountry event last week with a number of top placings.
The college scored wins in the junior and senior girls' teams, second in the intermediate girls' event, the junior boys' and senior boys' three-person teams. In the six-person events the college also placed first in the senior boys' and there were also a number of second placings.
Anneke Grogan was the only individual winner, finishing first in the intermediate girls' event, but both Charlotte Skelton (fourth in the intermediate girls) and Blake Dawson (third in the junior boys) had outstanding runs in strong fields. Alice McFall also flew the flag high for Aquinas, finishing third in the senior girls' race. Overall Aquinas had 14 runners finish in the top 10 in their races - impressive for a small school.
In junior girls' Dana Welten finished fifth, Michelle Dykes eighth, and Kimberly D'Mello 10th. The Aquinas junior girls' team finished first in the three-person and second in the six-person event thanks to efforts by Dana, Michelle, Kimberly and Nathalie Guernier, Natasha Collins and Alexandra Dawick.
In junior boys' Blake Dawson was third and this age group and gender came second in both the three and six-person event. This involved Blake, plus Patrick Irmie and Morgan Brockelsby, as well as Paul Bibi, Andrew Randrup and Andrew Norman.
In the intermediate girls' event Anneke Gogan was first and Charlotte Skelton fourth. The team of Anneke, Charlotte and Lauren Dennehy was second in the three-person team event.
In the intermediate boys' race Aquinas came second in the six-person event which involved Ryan Foord, Jesse Church, Jonathan Dunn, Angus Raiman, Mathew Strong and Ben Dunn. Alice McFall finished third in the senior girls' run, and combined with Kathryn Stewart and Caitlin Milne to be first in the three-person event.
The senior boys' took out second placing in the three-man event, and first in the six-man thanks to the efforts of David Randrup, Scott Doney, William Moore, George Cortesi and Adam O'Connor and Oliver Lee.
Top placing in that grouping went to David Randrup, who was fourth in the senior boys. Scott, William, George and Adam all finished within the top 10.
Mt Maunganui
The annual Mt Maunganui College Tangaroa Challenge adventure race was held last Friday in what turned out to be trying conditions on the harbour with the wind causing a half metre chop for the paddle from Matapihi to Pilot Bay.
The race starts at Omanu Golf Club with a 6km road run to Matapihi where the kayaks await. A 7km paddle to the base of Mauao was followed by a 4km offroad run up the Mount. Then it's back to transition for the final road bike leg of 14km to the finish at Mount College.
With 22 teams ranging from corporate and services teams to school teams, it was always going to be great racing. Mount College had some awesome results with the senior mixed team proving too strong for a competitive Aquinas team, leading after the first road run leg heading into the kayak leg.
Mount had a race plan and the known surf lifesaving paddlers were too strong and pulled ahead in the kayak leg and never looked back to take first.
The team was Ashley Cochrane, Katie Smith, Taris Harker and Michael Bryant.
Our junior mixed team - Maia Bryant, Malia Josephson, Kane Sefton and Jake Cowdrey - also won. Both the junior boys and girls' teams won their divisions.
They boys' team was Mason Bryant, Scott Cowdrey, Ben Cochrane and Daniel Edwards and the winning girls were Alice Walmsley, Tayla Linke, Kaydi O'Connor Stratton and Eden Craig.
Also finishing on the podium were the second Mount junior boys' team (Nate Moore, Ben Elisara, Fletcher Swan and Scott Miller) who were third and the senior boys - Jackson Edwards, Sam Durrant, Ross Cowdrey and Danny Hart - were second. Two Air Force teams topped the services division and 'Team Bite Me' were the first corporate team.
At the Bay crosscountry champs was held at Waipuna Park last week Maia Bryant was the best performer, finishing fourth in junior girls in a time of 11.58 over 3km. The winning time was 11.09.
Other places for Mount students were Nathan Walker 20th in intermediate boys and Tayla Linke 19th in intermediate girls.
Kaydi O'Connor Stratton was back on the water in the Bay canoe slalom champs and was first in the under-16 K1 and C1. In the North Island rafting champs Kaydi was in the winning under-23 slalom team, third in the under-23 sprint team and was in the first girls' team overall.
Congratulations to the Mount under-14 and under-15 rugby teams who have qualified for the premiership round in the secondary schools Baywide rugby competition after the first round of Bay grading.
Otumoetai
The girls' football first XI played Aquinas and had a convincing win 6-2. Standout players Marika Watts and Andrea Meyers were relentless with their continued pressure, securing some good ball for their teammates. Brooke Matheson scored three goals.
The junior A had a 4-1 win against Aquinas junior A with a Daniel Hill second half hat-trick the difference between the teams. Cameron Ball, in his first game as captain, put the team ahead while the defence kept out a number of Aquinas attacks as stand-in 'keeper Nathan Wilson made a string of good saves. But it was a stronger and more determined team effort in the second half that swung the game our way with three good team moves finished off by Hill.
The girls' second XI hockey had a great match up against Aquinas. Down at halftime 1-0 they showed good skill work and secured a 1-1 draw. The junior boys' hockey green team played well against Tauranga Boys' Gold and lifted their game to meet the level of a team that was probably on average a year more experienced and made them work for their win. The umpire complimented them on their attitude and sportsmanship.
Otumoetai first XV hosted Trident College as part of the Baywide championship midweek in perfect conditions. Trident showed their ability early and made good use of the ball, putting on 21 points. Ryan Henstock kicked a penalty goal to make the halftime score 21-3 to Trident. Most thought Trident would run away with the game but Otumoetai showed their resolve and fought back. Quick tries to Liam Whareaitu on the wing and Ryan Henstock at second-five and suddenly it was Trident under pressure. Cameron McCaskie dived over after the team showed good counter-rucking from a kick chase. David Irwin showed determination close to the line to beat the tacklers and then put a short pass to Tukuora Ngawhika-McMillan, who scored close to the posts. The final score was a win to Otumoetai College 27-21.
The under-14s played Tauranga Boys' under-14 B and came away with a 29-12 win. A special mention to Shaun Brownlie at lock who continues to go from strength to strength. This team now moves up to the division one under-14 grade.