This week 15 of our students are competing at the Australian surf lifesaving championships on the Gold Coast. Our senior girls' and boys' teams are in Palmerston North at the NZ volleyball championships.
Aquinas College
Basketballer Courtney Wilson and gymnast Joshua Healy-Ormrod have particularly good reason to be celebrating their sporting success of late. Courtney attended the New Zealand under-18 basketball trials recently and was named as first reserve for the team. Joshua has been named in the 2012 men's artistic development squad for New Zealand. This means he is training to be part of a national team competing internationally.
Aquinas students are also excelling in the fields of athletics, judo and swimming.
Results from the Waikato Bay of Plenty athletics meet saw Aquinas bring home five top placings. Dana Welten was third in the junior girls' 800m, Anneke Grogan finished first in the intermediate girls' 1500m and Alice McFall first in the senior girls' 2000m steeplechase. Scott Doney was third in the senior boys' discus, while Spencer Kirk was third in the athletes with disabilities shot put.
In judo, Riley Maguire won silver in the senior boys' under-50kg division when representing Tauranga Judo Club at the East Coast championships last weekend. Riley also scored a bronze in the senior boys' open, while Jackie Hwang won gold in the under-73kg cadets.
Meanwhile, it was a big day at the pool for young Alice Williams, when competing at the Bay of Plenty zone swimming championships last week. This Year 7 student scored three first placings, and four third placings. In the same age-group event, Kayla Dew took home a second place in the 25m freestyle. Lochlainn O'Connor, Leon Castle, Sam Wylie and Ryan Young also achieved highly at the championships. Leon brought home a third placing and Ryan scored first and second placings in his events. Sam achieved five firsts and one second, while Lochlainn secured four first placings, three second placings, and two thirds.
Tauranga Boys'
Tauranga Boys' College 2nd XI cricketers played Cadets in a semifinal match. Unfortunately, Cadets outplayed Tauranga Boys' College with the bat and ball. Tauranga Boys' batted first and could compile only 117 runs, Gareth Wallace (24) playing a solid knock in the middle order. Cadets cruised to victory, with Connor Fifita picking up the only three wickets to fall.
Tauranga Boys' College Wanderers beat Otumoetai College 2nd XI, Tauranga Boys' College Lords lost to Bay of Plenty girls' development team, Tauranga Boys' College Cavaliers beat Katikati and Tauranga Boys' College Edgbaston beat Te Puke.
The first major event on the golf calendar is always the Super 8 competition. Hastings Boys' High School hosted this year's Super 8 at the Hawke's Bay golf club. The four players per team event was held over 54 holes, with the best three of four gross scores counting in each round. Sean Blomquist, Charlie Hillier, Tyler King and Finnlay Martin made up the Boys' College team A team and Scott White, James Boyd, Wyatt Amerson and Chris Taylor made up the B team. A good first round saw Tauranga Boys' College in second place and they continued their good form in the afternoon round to stay in second overall, six shots behind Hamilton.
The final round was played in atrocious conditions and saw them locked in a tight race with Hastings and Hamilton and, when all the cards were in, Tauranga Boys' College finished in second position. The B team also performed well in the stableford competition and came a creditable second. Highlights for the boys included Charlie Hillier coming third in the race for the individual title and Chris Taylor coming second in the stableford competition.
In rowing, it was tournament week for the four top rowing squads. The under-18 lightweight four was first in heats, the under-18 quad first in heats, the under-17 double was first in heats and under-16 four was second in heats.
In volleyball, our senior A beat John McGlashan College and senior B beat Hamilton Boys' High School. In round two, senior A beat Manurewa College and senior B lost to Orewa College (the tournament No2 seed). In round 3, senior A beat Otumoetai and senior B beat Alfriston College.
In athletics, the Waikato Bay of Plenty championships were held on March 17 at the Tauranga Domain. Tauranga Boys College fielded a strong team of over 30 boys who had previously qualified from the Bay secondary schools champs. Standout performances came from Steven Masters and Alex Colvin, who both set records. Steven set a junior high jump record, clearing 1.73m in a great display of jumping, and Alex set a senior long jump record, leaping an impressive 6.9m.
Other performances of note came from Connor Fifita, who won the intermediate long jump and triple jump titles. Junior discus thrower Reece Thompson remained poised throughout his competition to grab third position to book himself a spot for North Islands. In the sprints, Ollie Ranby took out an impressive double, winning the senior 200m and 400m titles and Ryan Carroll finished an impressive second in the intermediate 200m. Tauranga Boys' College also performed well in the middle distance races, with Daniel Hintz and Torey Harnett finishing second and third respectively in the intermediate 800m. Daniel backed up his excellent performance with another quality run in the 1500m event, finishing second. Senior runner Michael Sutton also competed in two middle distance races, recording 8:39 in the 3000m for the win and then showing his strength by finishing a respectable third in the 1500m race. Aaron Fredheim also ran the 3000m/1500m double in the junior grade. Aaron won the 3000m race and then a few hours later managed to take second place in the 1500m.
Last weekend the Tauranga Boys' College senior water polo team was away in Auckland competing at the North Island schools competition, finishing fifth. Congratulations to Cameron Hayes, who has been selected for the New Zealand under-18 water polo team and will be competing in the world youth champs held in Perth in December. The team will also be travelling to Sydney in September for games against Australia.
Congratulations also to Robbie Parekowhai-Gudex, Connor Probert, Dylan Bull, Jake Chegwidden, Charlie Hillier, Dylan Morris, Luke Johnson and James Hanson who have just returned from Melbourne where they were a major part of a local under-15 football club side representing the North Island at the Australasian qualifying tournament for the Nike Manchester United Premier Cup.
Tauranga Girls'
It's summer tournament week again and teams from Tauranga Girls College are away competing as usual. The rowers are down in Twizel and the volleyball teams are in Palmerston North.
On the first day of competition at the national secondary schools volleyball competition the senior A had two 3-0 set wins, the second day they won both their games, only dropping a set to Westlake Girls'. Yesterday morning they beat Manurewa. Senior B were the only B team in division one but have lost three games and won one and are now in division two.
Last weekend, several girls from our school competed in an underwater hockey women's regional tournament held in Auckland. Megan Burrows, Courtenay Coughlan and Kelly Saunders were part of the central North Island team. Their final game against Northern B was exciting, as a 4-4 draw at fulltime meant they were in sudden-death for over seven minutes. They managed to score the winning goal to finish third overall in New Zealand.
Bethlehem College
Morgan and McKenzie Ball have competed in two running events in the past three months. In the Albany lake summer series, Morgan placed first in her age group for the 10km race and finished in sixth position out of 198 women who competed. Her best time was 44min49sec. McKenzie competed in the 5km event and placed first in her age group and first overall out of 201 female entrants. Recently, they both competed in the Coatesville Classic. Morgan came first in her age group and third out of 163 female entrants. McKenzie won her event and was second overall by one second with a time of 7min38.
At the recent Bay of Plenty Year 7 and 8 swimming sports, Bethlehem College accomplished extremely good results. Danielle Spreadborough won the 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle and 75m IM, Daniel Miller won the 75m IM and 50m backstroke, Anna Burnett won the 25m breaststroke and 50m breaststroke, Blake Horne won the 50m backstroke and Harriet Cairns won the 100m freestyle and 75m IM. Other students who came in the top three for their events were Mia Pugh, Luke Hardy, Laura Wyatt, Niam Derecourt, Claudia Patterson, Anna Lee, Darcie Anning and Jasmine Bellerby.
Recently Tiaan John and Luke Fisher were chosen for the 2012 under-18 boys' hockey team, a great achievement for both of them.
Last Saturday our first XI cricket team won against Katikati, securing our position at the head of the Baywide competition. With superb batting by Matthew Cole, Bede Murray and Mitchell Fairweather we scored 164 runs. We dismissed Katikati for a total of 123, with Chris Johnston taking 3-7, Matthew Cole 2-17, Chase Raleigh 2-17 and Dylan Ramohitaj 2-35.