No holiday for college athletes

Tauranga Girls'

While many of us were having a break there were some successful athletes out competing for our school.
The water polo team placed fifth in Division 1 at the nationals in Wellington. Charlotte Eglinton was selected to trial for the New Zealand Secondary Schools girls' team.
The kayaking team were named the top girls' school at the National Secondary Schools Championships after a tough week in Kawerau competing against many other schools, including several from the South Island.
Anna Higgins was awarded the top girls' trophy and the trophy for the top under-18 kayaker overall. The team consisted of Higgins (under-18), Haylee Dangan (under-16), Kimiko Withrington (under-16), Chelsi Williams (under-16), Jessica Crockett (under-14) and Suzy Cumming (under-14).
Olivia Chance scored a fabulous achievement by being selected to travel to Australia and China with the New Zealand Ferns Football Team. We wish her every luck for a good tournament.
Hockey has had some good achievements with Nicky McCool, Rachel Cook and Michelle Prendiville making the under-18 Tauranga representative team. Amy Robinson, Francis Davies, Isabella Kirk, Isabella Puchner, Stephanie Chapman and Shvaughan Ririnui were selected for the under-15 Tauranga Representative Team. Zoe Wieringa
Aquinas
Aquinas College's talented young sportswoman Alice McFall brought home a first placing from the recent local Secondary Schools' Duathlon.
Alice competed in the intermediate aged division of the event, which was held last month and attracted competition from throughout not only the Western Bay of Plenty, but also Taupo, Rotorua and Whakatane colleges.
The win was hardly just one out of the bag for Alice.
She has also recently competed in Queenstown in the Secondary School Triathlon nationals where she achieved a fourth in the Under 16 race.
Achieving top placings in duathlons, triathlons, Ucan2 events, long-distance athletics, and open steeple chase races is just what Alice does.
Despite all that, those events are not even her main focus. Alice currently has her sights firmly set on netball. She is the Bay of Plenty Youth Ambassador, NZ Regional Umpire and attempting to give as much as she can back to Aquinas netball too.
Tauranga Boys'

The 1st XV rugby team scored a big win over Lindisfarne College on April 18.
TBC started strongly with some good go-forward which resulted in No8 Forrest Paul getting over the line in the first five minutes.
Man of the match Te Aihe Tome directed his team around the park.
He beat two defenders and then chipped in behind the defence to score and put the final nail in the coffin for a 40-5 win.
It was a good hit-out before the 1st XV took on traditional rivals Auckland Grammar at the end of the holidays at Nicholson Field.
The 2nd XV lost 26-23 to their Auckland Grammar opposites.
That the opposition scored only one try was testament to the TBC side's outstanding defence.
While the result was disappointing it was a positive display from a team in only their second game this season.
The boys will undoubtedly learn from losing such a tight game.
Returning surf lifesaver and open-side flanker Sam Shergold was outstanding for the Tauranga Boys' team.
He was into everything on attack and defence and almost single-handedly kept TBC in the game. His man of the match performance was impressive and he will be a strong asset to TBC rugby this year and would have had a tackle count to rival New Zealand Warriors rugby league star Micheal Luck.
Next week the Baywide competition starts, offering the opportunity to engage in some regular rugby.
In the holidays our 25-man team competed in three New Zealand Championship events over nine days of build-up and racing.
In the New Zealand Secondary Schools Canoe Slalom, after a 13-year reign as top kayaking school, Tauranga Boys' succumbed to the co-ed Dunstan High School from Alexandra. We did, however, retain the top boys' school trophy.
Cole O'Connor Stratton was one of our best senior performers, taking the under-18 C1 and K1. Dan Munro was our star under-14 paddler with seven medals.
The New Zealand Extreme Whitewater Freestyle Schools Championships were held on the Kaituna River on Easter Monday.
Paddlers from across the country attended. Each competitor had three 45-second rides in the surging whitewater of the highly challenging Trout Pool Rapid and were given points on the difficulty of moves performed for each ride.
A strong team from the South Island's Dunstan High School in Alexandra lined up, confident of another victory over the North Island schools after their Top NZ Canoe Slalom School trophy win and training in Canada.
In the end, Regan August of Tauranga Boys' won the under-18 division, and Laurence Brown came third.
In the under-16 division, Ryan McDonald of Tauranga Boys' placed second. In the under-14 division, Tauranga Boys' Dan Munro was first, Jacob Reyland second, and James Thwaite third.
The Tauranga Boys' team won the Top Extreme Whitewater School Trophy.
On an overcast Saturday, on April 16, defending Fed 1 football champions Claudelands Rovers arrived at the mighty fortress that is Pemberton Park.
Creating great chances, we came close to scoring and were unlucky at times. It was a tight affair leading into the break and it was all tied up at 0-0.
After a short break we were back on the battlefield and we also started the second half well, but chances were missed. A couple of mistakes were made and Claudelands capitalised, and before long the score had blown out to 4-0. The score did not truly reflect the game.
On a gloomy, grey afternoon on April 24, Tauranga Boys' College 1st XI travelled to Neil Hunt Park in Rotorua to play Rotorua United in our fourth game of the Federation 1 league.
We started well and had a few early touches on the ball which led to some promising chances. Andrew Carter and Jared Bailey came close to scoring but unfortunately we were not able to convert.
Gradually the physicality of the Rotorua men's side began to influence the game and put us under some pressure.
Unfortunately, two minor mistakes by our team were punished in quick succession which saw us 2-0 down at halftime.
We battled well throughout the second half but after creating more chances, which we were unable to exploit, Rotorua continued to press forward and punished two more mistakes to go 4-0 up. This presented an opportunity for Jack Hwang (on debut), Elton Mudzingwa, and Arron Priest (also on debut) to be injected into the game.
Overall, we we felt did not deserve to be punished 4-0.
Tauranga Boys' arrived at Pukekohe Football Club on April 26 with grey clouds above and a long rainy day ahead for a Chatham Cup clash.
The match kicked off in pouring rain, but in the first 10 minutes we dominated, launching attack after attack. We had a few good chances and Andy Carter broke the deadlock.
No matter what the opposition tried they could not break our calm back four and with skill, set pieces and great passing Carter scored his second with about 15 minutes of the half to go.
We had a two goal-cushion and went into the break feeling motivated for the second half.
The whistle blew and we were off with a bang but the rain had taken its toll and we were all feeling tired, making silly mistakes, but the other team were feeling it just as much as us. Then with 20 minutes to go Carter shot his third into the top corner - a screamer of a goal to get his hat-trick, an awesome goal and well deserved.
The final score was 3-0.
Next, Tauranga Boys' College 1st XI took on Auckland Grammar 1st XI on April 30.
It was a real nail-biter between the two teams.
Tauranga played some of the best football they've played all season.
Tom Probert scored the first goal around the 25-minute mark. But in the second half, around the 60-minute mark, Grammar scored a soft goal through a free kick.
After that goal the TBC boys' heads dropped a little and Grammar scored another two goals and they took the game 3-1 in the end.
Tauranga took on Te Puke the same day, wanting a good result after the loss to Auckland Grammar.
The playing conditions were good for what was to be an exciting game.
The side started strongly and kept possession well, with several chances in the first half.
If some of those chances had gone our way, we would have had a big scoreline, but the keeper pulled off some good saves to keep Te Puke in the game.
TBC's first goal came from centre-back Josh Dwight with a tap right into the centre of the goal which made the score 1-0 at halftime.
We made a couple of substitutions to inject some life into the game and started the second half strongly, but with an unfortunate mistake by our goalkeeper, we were caught out at the back, which Te Puke took advantage of to make the score 1-1.
Due to a late tackle from a Te Puke player and the red-card reaction from our player, we found ourselves down to 10 men.
But Tauranga Boys' immediately put intense pressure on Te Puke.
A ball over the top from Jack Chaney put Ahmad Zammit through to beat the keeper with a well-driven shot into the bottom left of the net to make the score 2-1 to TBC.
Again we had great possession of the ball in their half of the pitch, again Jack Chaney put a well-lifted ball over the top of the Te Puke defence, this time to set up Dan Looker to lob the keeper from close range, this made the score 3-1 to TBC.
Te Puke then pushed on to our defence and with a well-struck strike made the score 3-2.
Again they pushed and our defence weakened, going into the last minutes of the game, and they scored again with a scrappy goal to make the score 3-3.
The New Zealand Secondary Schools Teams Sailing Nationals took place last week at Algies Bay, North of Auckland, where the Tauranga Boys' College Sailing Team finished third overall.
After qualifying sixth for the finals series, the team raced Lindisfarne College in the quarter-finals, losing the first race then winning the next two to move on to the semifinals where they lost to St Kents 2-0.
The boys sailed in the third and fourth play-off where they raced Whangarei Boys', winning 2-0 to claim a third-place finish overall, which pleased the boys.
Their effort qualified them for the Interdominion champs between Australia and New Zealand which will be sailed in Port Lincoln, South Australia.