College Sport: Karina excels at kayak nationals

Bethlehem College
The weekend was successful for a number of Bethlehem College students.
Last weekend, Karina Radley won four events at the New Zealand kayak nationals in Rotorua.
She was part of the successful crew in the K2 in both the 200m and 500m events. Karina also competed in the K1 200m, 500m and 1km. She won the 200m and 500m with a personal best. and came second in the longer 1km event.
Sally Davenport and Beniece Douche competed in the New Zealand senior secondary schools beach volleyball competition finishing fifth.
The Port Ohope tri champs saw the school entered into three different events.
Jessica Sloan, Dannielle Wright and Toni Silcock teamed up for the junior girls' teams event, to finish third. Katie Smith competed in the junior girls' individual, putting in a determined effort to come second.
Lastly, Oliver Lines Smith was challenged by his nearest rival from John Paul College in the senior boys' individual. Oliver was in second place after the swim but managed to take a small lead after the bike leg and never looked back to win the title. - Hannah Marshall and Mathew Smalberger, sports captains.
Tauranga Boys'
Tauranga Boys' College had five students representing New Zealand at the Australian secondary schools, pre-nationals and Australian Open kayaking champs held over two weeks in January.
Highlights include James Cumming picking up gold with the under-18 NZ K1 team while Cole O'Conner-Stratton gained three medals on the tour.
At the Oceania canoe slalom champs on the Mangahu River, Cole O'Connor-Stratton gained bronze in the under-18 K1. The junior C1 title and Oceania title went to Tauranga Boys' College student Brogan Gordon ahead of Tommy McDowell of Nelson and O'Connor-Stratton.
We've had more kayaking success, with O'Connor-Stratton and Laurence Brown selected to represent New Zealand at the junior under-18 world slalom championships being held in the United States and Canada later this year.
Callum Gilmour has qualified for nine events at the New Zealand division II swimming competition being held in Christchurch from March 14-20.
The Tauranga Boys' College first XI cricketers were up against Greerton on Saturday. Greerton batted out their 50 overs, crawling to 195-9.
In reply, Tauranga Boys' were off to a good start before losing two wickets in one over. Tom MacRury looked comfortable during his innings but was caught off the gloves down the leg side. Cameron Neal and Sean Davey returned with the bat and steadied the innings.
Unfortunately, with only 50 needed off 12 overs, Tauranga Boys' lost too many wickets and Greerton had their hopes high. Francois Potgeiter looked to be showing some late heroics and dusk fell but was caught behind off a bottom edge with only six runs needed off 15 balls.
In other cricket results, Tauranga Boys' Cavaliers went down to Otumoetai 3rd XI, TBC Edgbaston had a convincing victory over Trident 2nd XI, winning by 108 runs, including an impressive 62 from L Tutty and four wickets from J Little.
The Tauranga Boys' reserves defeated Mount College by three wickets with a solid half century to G Bedford-Rolleston and N Aldersly the pick of the bowlers with 2-13.
TBC Wanderers lost to Otumoetai 2nd XI in a low scoring affair by three runs while TBC White defeated TBC Blue at Nicholson field by nine runs.
Our 54th annual athletics was held last Wednesday in perfect conditions and the first major house event of the year. Five school records were broken on the day including the Intermediate 800m, when Scott Croasdale ran a personal best time of 2m 02s.
Shortly after, training partner Julian Oakley ran the 800m in 1m 58s and the 1500m in 4m 05s, both school records. Joe Ormsby threw 13.58m in the shot put to get his name in the record books while Burton McAdam backed up his 2010 performance in the high jump, clearing 182cm to set a new record in the intermediate boys.
Individual champions are determined by best performances over all events. In the Junior boys Jack Colvin dominated the field with wins in the hurdles, 200m, long jump, triple jump, high jump and discus. Brad Currie and Liam McNeal were second equal.
The Intermediate grade saw Alex Colvin win the hurdles, long jump and triple jump and second in 200m, high jump and javelin. Ollie Ranby and Caleb Aperahama were 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the senior boys competition, Julian Oakley had victories in the 400m, 800m, 1500m and 3000m. Hayden Symes was close in second, with Matt Strange third.
Final house results were: Hillary, Ngarimu, Halberg, Ngata, Freyburg and Rutherford.
Our Year 9 volleyball team had a narrow two sets to one loss the Mount College Year 10 team, with Liam McNeal player of the match.
The national secondary schools beach volleyball champs were held at the Mount beach over the weekend. Tauranga Boys' College entered 10 junior and three senior teams, with Keanu White and Matthew Kilpatrick fifth in the seniors. In the juniors, Tauranga Boys' dominated the semis with three teams involved. In semifinal one Max Schroder and Burton McAdam defeated Otumoetai College, and in semifinal two Brad Fullerton and Joseph Winstanley defeated Tom Mabbott and Zach Brown. Both games were won in two sets.
The final was a great game with lots of power hitting. In the end Brad and Joseph were too strong for Max and Burton, winning in two sets. Playing off for bronze, Zach and Tom had a great battle with Otumoetai College and came out on top. First, second and third in the competition for Tauranga Boys' is a great result.
Aquinas College
Over the summer break Aquinas rowers participated in four regattas.
At the Blue Lakes regatta with 530 rowers competing, Gavin Powell, in a quad, was fourth in his heat. Rosemary van der Velden, in a quad, was 2nd in the heat and qualified for the A final that was cancelled due to bad weather. In a double, Rosemary was 2nd in her heat but the A finals were cancelled. Edward Sanders and Connor Bourne also performed well.
At the KRI 2 regatta this month involving 1700 rowers, Rosemary was second in her quad heat and 5th in the B finals, and Connor and Edward 7th in the double sculls A final.
Meanwhile, Aquinas runner Anneke Grogan had much success, including silver at the South Island Colgate Games in 800m, bronze in the North Island Colgate 1500 and third overall on combined scores at the North Island 14-year-old interprovincial (scores tallied from three events).
Tauranga Girls'
In weekly competitions, Tauranga Girls' senior water polo team beat Mount Maunganui College, with our junior water polo team drawing with Aquinas College.
Tauranga Girls' senior A volleyball team had a gruelling game but got the right outcome of a win against Otumoetai College.
At the New Zealand secondary schools beach volleyball champs on the weekend there were 11 teams from Tauranga Girls' entered, six in the senior section and five in the juniors.
Dylan Vaetoe and Stephanie Pierce (senior girls) got through unbeaten until the final where they lost in an exciting final against Westlake Girls to take silver, while Andrea Tauai and Alice Bain (seniors) were fourth.
Amy Robinson, a Year 11 student, got bronze at the New Zealand heptathlon champs in the 16-years-and-under division.
At the Bay of Plenty triathlon we had Kirsty Burrows getting gold in the junior girls' section. - Zoe Wieringa.
Mount College
The annual school athletics was held last week at the Tauranga track with five records falling. On the track, Kodi Harman took out the senior boys' 400m record in a time of 52.31s, beating the 53.78s record set in 1982.
Kodi also beat the record set last year by Jordan Hills of 22.88 for the 200m sprint, recording a time of 22.65s.
In the field events, Rochelle Newdick beat the intermediate girls' triple jump record, jumping 9.38m. The boys senior shot put record of 13.72m held since 1966 by John Shaw was beaten by Maloni Latailakepa with a huge 13.86m.
Danny Kayes also blitzed the senior boys' javelin record of 46m held since 1989 by Hamish Kuka, throwing a massive 50.08 m.
Athletic champs 2011: Snr girls 1st Trudi Greig, 2nd Cara Ryan. Snr boys 1st Kodi Harman, 2nd Caleb Mattison-Smith. Int girls: 1st Rochelle Newdick, 2nd Sophie Millar. Int boys: 1st Bill Carter, 2nd Michael Bryant and Josh McDonald. Jnr girls: 1st Emma Marumaru-Flynn, 2nd Eden Craig. Jnr boys 1st Nathan Walker, 2nd Matthew Sargent.
The national secondary schools beach volleyball champs were played at the Mount main beach last weekend.
This is a new sport to Mt College and we had some great results. The pairing of Hannah Scown and Claudia Colenso Nee-nee won gold in the under-16 division, defeating a Whakatane pairing in the final. The girls had a tough three setter against Otumoetai in the semifinal but went through the tournament unbeaten.
In the senior boys' section Mitchell Kerr-Bell and Adiyan Risna were beaten in a tight quarter-final against the tournament top seeds while Caleb Mattison-Smith and Sam Bessant lost another tight match in the semifinal against the eventual tournament winners.
The teams now switch back to indoor volleyball where the Mount senior boys' team look to have ability to test some of the traditionally more dominant schools.
Three of our top netball girls, Leah Marumaru-Flyn, Tayla Blanchard and Rene Cotterill, were selected to play in a mixed secondary schools central team as the curtainraiser for the Magic's game in Rotorua last Sunday, playing a central selection team.
Cara Ryan partnered with Karina Radley (Bethlehem College) last weekend in the canoe/kayak nationals held at Tikitapu, where they won national titles in the under-19 K2 500m and K2 200m races. Campbell Reid, a Year 9 student, also raced in Rotorua in the under-15 division and finished with two bronzes, silver and three golds in the K2 200m, K4 500m and 200m.
Otumoetai College

Mary Mitchell competed at the FEI world showjumping challenge, a worldwide simultaneous competition comprising four showjumping rounds each with 10 fences in Auckland. Mary with horse Payday NZPH, came second in the under-18 event which qualifies her for the NZ representative team. Mary's results will be compared against the rest of world's.
At the NZ secondary schools beach volleyball champs, Otumoetai again had the largest contingent of teams amongst the 104 attending this elite tournament - 13 junior girls' teams, with noticeable increase in Year 9 interest.
Six of those teams made the top-16 cut. Te Pea Thompson-Apure and partner Abby Meredith were stand outs in this grade, finishing with the bronze medal with a great win over Bethlehem, but also with the distinction of losing only one game to the eventual winners in a tight three-setter.
In the junior boys' grade with five teams competing in this 22-team grade we had three teams make the top 16. Will Clague and Jack Boyle were best performers finishing fourth.
Senior girls was very competitive this year with another step up in quality entries. With 21 teams entered, we had five teams who all made the top-16 draw. Alyse Barclay and Aneta Buckley were fifth equal, with Katie Wood and Holly Boyle the stand out girls; team finishing with bronze.
In the senior boys' grade, 27 teams were entered with four strong teams competing. Two of those teams won medals, with Grady Cameron and Jack Thompson securing bronze and Griffin Muller and Andrew Bray taking silver.
Samara Maxwell has returned from her trip to Chicago with the New Zealand gymnastics team.
She excelled on the beam, placing fifth competing against 50 other athletes at this international tournament. She was seventh equal in the vault and 12th in the bar.
The cricket second XI played Tauranga Boys, who produced 78 off 26 overs. Otumoetai replied with 79-5 off 21 overs.
The Team Up programme started its term one Touch module with after school sport on Monday, with five teams entered.
At the Bay secondary schools triathlon event in Ohope last weekend the senior girls' team Monster Trucks secured the silver after a brilliant swim by Taylor Armstrong, along with team mates Emma Jackson and Keira Nesdale. Congratulations also to Jack May who was ninth in the junior boys.
Andre Sperling, representing New Zealand at the Australian secondary schools and nationals, won four medals and set the third-fastest K1 time of all agegroups at the School event. At the nationals he won the under-16 K1 title to go with his New Zealand open nationals title in the same age group.
Eden Arkwright has been selected for the NZ under-18 development water polo team who will tour Hawaii in August.
Laim Hesp recently won the under-14 national kneeboarding title while the weekly interschool golf pennants competition started this week with eight playing from Otumoetai. Best was Jamie Henderson.