College Sport: Pair in national volleyball squad

Bethlehem College
Bethlehem College students have had another busy week.
In volleyball, Molly Anning and Lauren Hitchcock, both Year 11 students, have been selected to train with the under-17 New Zealand women's beach volleyball squad. The girls teamed up only recently to represent their school at the secondary schools beach nationals held at the Mount, narrowly missing out on the semifinals.
The senior A volleyball girls have been busy preparing for nationals and competing in the Bay of Plenty volleyball preliminaries. After some very tense games, the girls managed to gain third place behind both Otumoetai College and Tauranga Girls College.
The boys' cricket first XI has played three games in the last week. The first was in the Baywide secondary schools competition against Trident High School. The game turned out to be evenly matched but we eventually took control, bowling Trident out 27 runs shy of our total. The win secured the Rob Leslie Challenge Shield and meant we finished up unbeaten in the Baywide competition.
The boys then went on to play in the second round of the Gillette Cup tournament. The first game was against St Peters in which, unfortunately, we were beaten. It was a hard fought match in which our run chase saw us fall short by 10 runs. The second game was against Taupo Schools, which we won.
We batted first, racking up a formidable total of 224 runs off our 20 overs, thanks mostly to an aggressive 124 run innings by Matt Cole. We then bowled Taupo out for 92.
This week saw two of our students competing at the prestigious Horse of the Year Show. Georgia Wiltshire competed in show hunter and show jumping on her horse Twiggy. She came away with the title of Supreme Champion in show jumping, a very technical event. This result puts Georgia as top in New Zealand for show jumper in her class. Georgia Ronald came 4th in the eventing Young Rider of the Year.
School swimming sports were held at Baywave, in which all the houses competed well. Tarore comfortably took first place.
Eleven students competed in the Waikato-Bay of Plenty athletics championships. Luke Davison performed well, taking first place in javelin, 110m hurdles and third in discus and shot put. Alice McAfferty ran in the 3000m junior girls race, finishing third, with Matthew Connolly first in triple jump and second in the 400m boys' race, both in the intermediate category. Michael Booth was third in the senior boys' 400m.
Te Puke High
AFL Aussie Rules: In their opening pool match at the Bay of Plenty regional qualifying tournament our Year 11 boys' team struggled through the first half against Trident High School before regaining their playing form, but the comeback came too late with the result going the way of Trident 22-7.
In their second pool game, effectively the playoff for second, Te Puke were on form right from the outset, pulling out to a good lead by halftime and then withstood the Edgecumbe College fightback to take out the match 24-18. Nesta Kitisene was selected as the Te Puke player of the tournament for his outstanding defensive work.
First XI football: After a break of two years where Te Puke High School has not fielded a boys' first XI, a number of club players have this year opted to form a team to represent their school in the Baywide youth league and at New Zealand secondary schools satellite tournament level. The team are currently completing their pre-season training programme with weekly practices at Te Puke's Jubilee Park, with their Baywide competition scheduled to kick-off on May 7.
There are 24 players vying for places in the girls' football first XI, with the team due to be selected following today's trial match at Jubilee Park.
Aquinas College
Sean Dyke's football prowess is literally taking him places.
The talented Year 7 Aquinas student has been selected as part of a invitational team to play at a football tournament in Jersey in the Channel Islands.
The team comprises Western Bay of Plenty players, all of whom are representative footballers. He will be leaving next week, and while there will also get to see some of Europe.
Sean, who is also a Tauranga representative cricket player, has played football since the age of 6. He has been selected as a Western Bay of Plenty representative footballer every year since 2007.
Sean's position is centre midfield. As well as also playing cricket, he is involved in swimming, waterpolo, basketball and squash.
Another young Aquinas student also enjoying sporting success is Hamish Low. Hamish, who is also a Year 7 student, teamed up with Ryan Wilkins of Pongakawa in the recent Western Bay of Plenty residentials' tennis tournament. The two competed in the 12 and under section and upset the top seeds in the semi-finals and then went on to win the final.
Mt Maunganui College
Another outstanding result for Kodi Harman winning the sprint double - under-16 100m and 200m - at the New Zealand track and field champs in Dunedin.
Kodi ran his 100m final in 11.42secs and the 200m in 21.93secs. This is the first time Kodi has broken the 22secs for the 200m.
Kodi paid tribute to his training partner Joseph Millar, who has contributed hugely to his outstanding results over the last two months both on the track and sand.
Kodi's next challenge on his dream run is the Australian surf lifesaving nationals next week. Kodi will be tested back on the sand in the sprint races and beach flags.
The annual State Ocean Swim was held in Mt Maunganui last weekend. Stormy surf conditions saw the event moved to Pilot Bay and a 2.7km swim course was created. Several Mount College students competed, with Mason Pickering finishing 5th in a time of 33.01 min. Michael Bryant was 11th in 33.57, with Mason was fourth in the under-19 division and Michael 7th. Ben Johnson finished 7th overall in a time of 33.16, winning the under-15 division, with Ben Cochrane 13th and Mason Bryant 14th. Cara Ryan finished 3rd in the girls' under-19 division.
Congratulations to Kahleia Josephson, who has been selected in the national under-15 girls' waterpolo team to compete in July against Australia. The school golf team of John Campbell, JD Pollard, Jordan Golding and Ridge Melville won their zonal pennants weekly competition and will play the final against other zonal winners from around the greater Bay region.
Tauranga Boys' College
Surf lifesaving: Jack Dustin won a gold medal in the under-19 board relay along with Dan Looker (old boy) at the recent national championships at Mt Maunganui.
Athletics: Andrew Robinson won the 400m and the 800m, finished second in the 80m hurdles and a third in the long jump at the Waikato/Bay of Plenty club champs for the boys 12 years and under last weekend.
Taekwondo: Daniel Earwaker and Tyler Hutchings competed at the NZ Open in Auckland last weekend. Daniel won his age group while Tyler finished second.
Cricket: Tauranga Boys' College Blue played Bethlehem College last weekend. Bethlehem batted first and scored 170 in their 20 overs, a large score but with small boundaries it was gettable. Luke Oxford bowled well and was rewarded with two wickets.
In reply, Tony MacDonald scored a scintillating 49 off 39 balls. Unfortunately we didn't quite get the target and finished on 144, still a good batting performance against a strong side. TBC White played Te Puke High School in the last round of the Twenty20 competition. Te Puke batted first and struggled through their innings thanks to some good bowling by our boys, especially Clayton Comerer with 2-4, Louie Arthur with 2-5 and Matt Biggar with 1-2. After some initial setbacks with the bat, Ben McColgan and Eli Ormsby saw Tauranga Boys' through to 78-3 in the 14th over for a convincing win.
Touch rugby: Last weekend the zonal qualifying tournament was held in Te Awamutu and involved top sides from Eastland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Narrow losses to Rotorua Boys', Hamilton Boys' and Gisborne Boys' High Schools saw us playing for 3rd/4th place. Luckily things clicked from the outset. Our defence put relentless pressure on the Gisborne Boys' attack, our error rate reduced and Te Aihe Toma led some enterprising attacks. We sustained the pressure and ran away with a 7-2 victory, ensuring qualification for nationals. - Julian Oakley.