Aquinas College
Swimming: Our team of 17 Year 7 and 8 students competed at the BOP Zone Swimming Championships at the Greerton pools. All students swam very well and we received some outstanding results.
Loui Schuler in the Year 7 boys' competition was one of our top swimmers, gaining six firsts, one third and records in the 25m Freestyle and Butterfly. Jessica Wylie (Year 7 girls) received four first-placed swims, a third and the record for the 25m Freestyle event. Lochlainn O'Connor (Year 8 Boys) gained four firsts, a second and two thirds.
Our three relay teams also did particularly well. The Boys' Freestyle Relay team (Leon Castle, Tom Wilson, Jack McManaway, Kiahi Horan) won their event. They came close to beating the record which Aquinas College set in 2008. The Mixed 100m Grand Relay was the event of the day. The team of Kayla Dew, Lochlainn O'Connor, Loui Schuler and Jessica Wylie easily won ahead of Bethlehem College. In the process they also set a new record of 1:00.76, surpassing the previous record also set in 2008 by Aquinas College.
At the senior level, Aquinas College sent a team of 25 swimmers to the BOP Swimming Champs held in Rotorua - by far the highest number of students to represent the college at this event for the past three years. The team produced some very creditable results highlighting the fact that there was very good depth and strength across all three age divisions. A number of swimmers qualified for finals in a number of events.
The relay teams underlined the strength of our team by gaining top 3 placings in every relay event on the program. Special mention also must be made of our two team members, Spencer Kirk and Joel Perkins, who competed in the Athlete-With-Disabilities division. They both represented the school exceptionally well. Congratulations to all team members for a very successful day.
Result highlights: U14 Division: Sam Wylie 50 Fly 3rd, 50 Free 3rd; Ryan Young 50 Breaststroke 2nd; U16 Division: Grace Eglinton 50 Breast 2nd, 50 Fly 2nd, 100 IM 1st; Michelle Dykes 50 Back 3rd; Athlete with Disabilities Division Spencer Kirk 1st in 50 Free, 25 Back, 50 Back; Joel Perkins: 2nd in 50 Free & 25 Back.
Te Wharekura o Mauao
Sevens: Three of our teams travelled to Taupo Nui a Tia College to compete in their annual Sevens tournament - two Under-14 teams and one Under-16 team.
The tournament had teams such as Taupo Nui a Tia, Tauhara, John Paul College and Western Heights competing in the tournament. Our kura managed to win both the Under-14 and Under-16 sections.
On Wednesday the 10th, an Under-14 and Under-15 rugby team travelled to Wesley College to play their Under-14 B and Under-15 A teams and we won both games. Our Under-14s came away with a 27-19 victory and the Under-15 team came away with a 7-5 victory over a team that had not lost in two years.
Positive things moving forward to the rugby season start proper.
Tauranga Girls' High School
Equestrian: Tylah Amrein, 14, and her horse Momento, have made it into the Bay of Plenty team to go to the New Zealand Pony Club Champs for eventing. The champs will be run over three days in Hastings where Tylah will compete against other teams from around New Zealand in dressage on the Friday, cross country on Saturday and show jumping on Sunday.
Swimming: We had eight girls compete at the Bay of Plenty Secondary School Swimming Championships and some came away with great results. Molly Alton placed third in the Junior Girls 50m Backstroke and eighth in the Junior Girls 100m Freestyle. Lucy Happe placed fifth in the Open Girls 200m Freestyle event while Emma Harding placed sixth in the Intermediate Girls 50m Backstroke.
In the junior girls 100m freestyle, Islah Kerr-Aim was fourth and in the open girls 200m freestyle Hannah Philpot was also fourth, and came eighth in the intermediate girls 100m individual medley and intermediate girls 100m freestyle.
Grace Wright was eighth in the junior Girls 50m breaststroke while Danielle Waiari won the 50m butterfly and freestyle, was second in the 50m backstroke and third in the 100m freestyle - all intermediate girls events. Kirsty Burrows, Emma Harding, Lucy Happe and Molly Alton were second in the Intermediate Girls 4x50m Relay. Kirsty was also in the intermediate girls 4x50m freestyle relay along with Danielle Waiari, Hannah Philpot and Islah Kerr-Aim.
Hockey: Our first XI hockey girls competed at the Western Heights Tournament on the weekend where they played five games. The girls took out the tournament overall.
Football :The first XI football girls also competed at the Western Heights Tournament against 15 other teams. In a very physical post section game against Whakatane we won 1-0. Unfortunately, in the match against New Plymouth, we dominated play but lost 1-0 in the semifinals. However, the team bounced back on the Sunday to beat St Peter's College and come third overall.
Synchronised swimming: Eva Morris competed in the Australian synchronised swimming championships. There were more than 100 girls in the competition from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Caledonia. Eva finished second in her duet and third in her solo with only Hong Kong swimmers above her.
Cross Country: Tauranga Girls' High School took out all three divisions in the Round the Mount relay this year! Congratulations to our junior team of Sophie Mc Connell, Joanne and Catherine Sutton, and Kaylee Mudgway. In the intermediate division, our winning team consisted of Jessica Bitcheno, Kirsty Burrows Tayla Forward and Erin Conway, while in the senior division our winning team was Rose Barker, Stella Marshall, Amy Robinson and Isabella Kirk.
Tauranga Intermediate
Cricket: Our last NZ Cup match of this season was against Aquinas College who won the toss and put us into bat first. We got off to a shaky start losing a few wickets, but steadied up with Marcel Collett scoring 48 runs. With the help of some big hitting by Rhys Mischewski, Beicjh Winter and Alex Smith, we got through to 127/7 after the 20 overs.
Aquinas College got off to the best possible start, being 57/0 after 10 overs. Scott Ellerington picked up a vital breakthrough, slowing the Aquinas run rate. But it came down to a thrilling final over. Aquinas needed 10 runs to win but with two no balls and a wide, Aquinas needed three off the last ball and they got a two but were run out while coming back for the third. This left the game in a tie. Tauranga Intermediate ended up winning the game because they had more wickets in hand at the end of their 20 overs.
Badminton: The 2013 School Badminton Championships were held last week in the gym. All students were given the opportunity to enter and compete in this knock-out championship competition.
The boys' draw was large with over 55 keen competitors this year. The boys' singles title went to Troy Morrell who defeated classmate Kieran Von Holstein-Rathlou in a skilled and competitive final 21/15, 21/18. In another close match for third place Matthew Brittain beat Adam Hitchiner 21/18, 21/16.
The girls' singles title went to Felila Simanu who defeated Oceana Whaiapu 24/23, 21/19 in a very tight final. Sahara Urwin beat Maya Palmer-Cannell for third place winning 21/17, 15/21, 21/8.
Medals for placegetters and a trophy for the winners will be awarded at our end-of-year sports prizegiving in December.
Te Puke High
Rugby : Our First XV played in the Western Bay of Plenty Co-ed Schools Tournament at Otumoetai, with two games on the first day. They beat Aquinas 17-0, then lost 22-0. They then played Otumoetai Black in the 3rd-4th playoff, winning convincingly to place third overall. On Saturday, Thames High School travelled to Litt Park for two games.
The first game started at 11.30am and it was between the development teams. Our 2nd XV won 35-5, with a stunning try set up by Dymond Loane who put Corey Williams across in the corner. The First XV had an intense game, it was a hard hit-out, but Thames came away with the win 21-19.
Football :The First XI represented our school at the Western Heights tournament, one of the biggest of the year. Teams to attend included several from Auckland, known to be a strong footballing region. Our team was placed in the hardest pool, which included defending champs Liston College and tournament hosts Western Heights. We held our own against them but did not manage to win on Friday or Saturday, though we went undefeated on Sunday. Overall, the tournament went well and was great for the First XI's development.
Hockey :The First XI girls' squad has been named, with their first friendly this week. The squad will also play an Auckland school in the second week of the holidays, after which the team will be finalised. The boys' First XI have finalised their team and are also training hard towards their first game, and all teams are looking forward to the start of the season.
Swimming: Five students travelled to Rotorua last Friday for the BOPSS swimming champs. Kathryn Bennett was second in the senior girls' 50m backstroke and all other swimmers, Andre Whitehead, Josh Rusell, Sapphire Tapsell and April Forgesson, made finals in their events - an awesome effort.
Motocross: Georgia Edwards, Nadia Savage and Tyler Steiner competed at the Western Heights High School Motocross tournament last Friday at the Horohoro Motocross track. Tyler was fifth, Nadia eighth and Georgia ninth overall in their events.
All winter sports teams are training, with hockey, netball and football squads finalised through trials in the past few weeks. We are looking for anyone keen to coach netball or hockey. If interested, contact the sports co-ordinator on 573 9769 ext 470.
Papamoa School
Swimming: The school sent a team of 11 swimmers to represent the Mount Cluster at the WBOP Primary School Swimming Sports last week and they returned with three WBOP Champions.
Eden Kelly won the Year 5 Girls 25m Backstroke in a time of 20.85 seconds, Stefan Heuberger defended his 25m Freestyle title from 2012 in a time of 15.82sec, and Liam Davoren was a member of the Victorious Mount Cluster Boys Relay Team.
Ripper Rugby: We were represented by nine teams in the BOPRU Ripper Rugby Module held at Gordon Spratt Reserve this term. The standout performance was from our Year 0-2 Black team that won their final 6-5 with a last-minute try to Jordan Allen.
Bethlehem College
Swimming: At the zone and secondary school swimming championships, BC had a number of outstanding results. At the Zone championships, top three placings were gained.
Emily Cairns 2nd in Girls 7 100m free, 3rd in 25m fly and 50m free, 1st in 75m IM and 50m breast; Logan Horne 2nd in Boys 7 100m free, 25m fly, 75m IM, 50m free, 1st in 50m back; Danielle Spreadborough 1st in Girls 8 100m free, 25m fly, 75m IM, 50m free, and 50m breast; Mia Pugh 2nd in Girls 8 100m free, 3rd in 75m IM, 50m free and 50m back; Daniel Miller 2nd in Boys 8 100m free, 25m breast, 75m IM and 50m back, 3rd in 25m fly, and 1st in 50m breast; Kelly Ruby 2nd in Girls 8 25m free; Izobel Finlayson 3rd in Girls 7 25m back, 2nd in 50m free; Victoria Stonebridge 2nd in Girls 7 25m breast; Katherine Clarke 2nd in Girls 8 25m breast and 50m breast; Charlotte Wyatt 3rd in Girls 7 50m back.
The college also did well in the relays. BC Girls won the 100m Free Relay with the team of Ella Browne, Izobel Finlayson, Mia Pugh, and Rachael Masters and came 2nd in the Mixed 100m Free Relay with Emily Cairns, Danielle Spreadborough, Logan Horne and Daniel Miller swimming.
The senior students competed well at the BOP Secondary School Swimming held at the Rotorua Aquatic Centre.
The top results were Rachel Meade 1st in Open Girls 200m free; Harriet Cairns 3rd in Open Girls 200m free, 2nd in the Girls 10-13 100m free; Blake Horne 3rd in Open Boys 200m free, 1st in Boys 10-13 100m free and 50m fly; Anna Burnett 2nd in Girls 10-13 50m free; Darren Lam 3rd in Boys 10-13 50m breast; William Spear 2nd in Boys 10-13 50m fly and 50m free, 1st in 100m IM; Ciara Derecourt 3rd in Girls 14-15 50m breast; Jessica Miller 1st in Girls 16-18 50m breast, 50m fly, 100m IM, and 100m free; Harris Lin 2nd in Boys 16-18 50m breast, and 100m IM; Jarrad Hawes 1st in Boys 16-18 50m fly, 3rd in 50m free, 2nd in 50m back. Again the teams did well in the relays, winning both the Boys and the Girls 4 x 50m medley races.
Cross-country: The College cross-country was run last week and the winners are: Y7 girls: Charlotte Wyatt; Y7 boys: Logan Tanner; Yr 8 girls: Mia Pugh; Yr 8 boys; Samuel Tanner; Jnr Girls: Madison Rennie; Jnr Boys: Rueben Darke; Int Girls: Eden Kleiman; Int Boys: Hamish Miller; Snr Girls: Courtney Rennie; Snr Boys: Dylan Ramohitaj.
Two teams competed in the Round the Mount Relay with the Junior Girls team of Madison Rennie, McKenzie Ball, Emily Johnston and Emma Waddell coming second. Madison Rennie had the fastest girl split time overall.
Hockey: Our boys team played in the Western Heights High School pre-season tournament and won four out of five games. By only losing to Tauranga Boys' 3-2 the team came second overall. It was a good opportunity to give new players tournament experience. Top scorers for our team were Bene Schlueter and Matthew Davis who both scored four goals.
Football: Our girls football team also played in the same tournament. On the first day, the girls won two and lost two games. On the next day, the team dominated Fraser High to win 4-1 with Eden Kleiman scoring all four goals with assistance from Gracie Carlyle and Emma McDonald. Unfortunately, the team had to concede their last game and so finally settled for 16th position.
Motocross: Talia Rose Clark, Bradley Cruse, Greg Tew and Georgia Woodward took part in the Western Heights High School Tournament. The team's best result coming from Greg Tew who came 5th in one race.
Tauranga Boys'
Rugby: FORM Building And Development Tauranga Boys' First XV v Sacred Heart College, pre-season game played on Saturday April 13. TBC had their first of many home games on Saturday as they hosted one of Auckland's top four teams from last year, Sacred Heart College.
Tauranga were immediately under pressure in this game as they were forced to make plenty of tackles in the opening exchanges against a larger side that were playing their seventh game of the season. Sacred Heart scored a try early in the game, but the Tauranga Boys' efforts in defence were starting to show on the visitors and the contact area was starting to be dominated by home side.
Unfortunately, poor field position and a mistake on their own line gave another try to the Aucklanders as they led with a 15-3 advantage. Some inspirational words from Matt Abbott sparked the home side to turn things around and score, as George Honey intercepted and blazed away for a try. Another mistake from Sacred Heart and Burton McAdam ran 70 metres to score and after Dylan Donne dotted down the scores were locked 22-22.
The highlight of the game came from Josh Honey putting a perfectly weighted kick through for Christian Kelly to pounce on and after beating the fullback put Tauranga ahead with three minutes to go.
The very next play from the kick off saw the Sacred Heart right winger get the ball, grubber, collect the ball again and pass inside to their lock to score. With the conversion successful the final score was 29-29. Player of day was Burton McAdam with his efforts at the back, but all the TBC boys can hold their heads up in what proved to be a physical encounter.
TBC 29 (George Honey, Burton McAdam, Dylan Donne, Christian Kelly tries; Dan Hollinshead 3 cons, pen).
Football Men's Federation League Two TBC First XI vs Tokoroa AFC, won 4-0.
Our second match of the year was against Tokoroa AFC at Strathmore Field. We had never played this team before and we didn't quite know what to expect from them. The whistle went and we were straight into it, with hard-fought battles all over the park. This had to be the most physical encounter a few of the boys had ever played.
Connor Smith was first on the score sheet with a tap-in. Due to the sheer size of the opposition, they tired within the first 45 minutes, leaving the midfield and wings with room to run, providing another goal before half-time. We were defending from the front and attacking from the back.
Another two goals in the second half sealed the win, while also maintaining the clean sheet. Goal scorers were Jared Bailey, Dylan Morris (2) and Connor Smith.
Surfing: Congratulations to Mackenzie Christie (Rutherford) who claimed his first victory at national level, winning the premier Under-18 Boys Division of the Backdoor GromBash on Sunday.
Mackenzie was one of the top surfers in the event, winning all his heats in the event including three on finals day. He claimed his victory late in the day surfing to a 14.0 point total early in the final which the other finalist couldn't match.
Quin Matenga (Ngarimu) surfed to his best result of the summer. He reveled in the conditions and was unfortunate when with 30 seconds to go another surfer managed to get the required score to push him into third in his semifinal gaining him 5th overall. At prize-giving they awarded him the 'cutback of the event', the only manoeuvre winner who wasn't in the Under-18 division.
Taine Craig-Ranga (Ngata) finished an outstanding fourth in the Under-14s. Taine surfed well all weekend in waves that were four times his height. His result and a quarter-final finish in the Under-16s are his best of the summer and will give him confidence heading into our winter programme.
Swimming: Friday, April 12, BOPSS Champs, Rotorua Aquatic Centre. TBC swimmers dominated the Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools Championships winning the team Freestyle 4x50m Relays in each of the three age groups, and coming 3rd, 2nd and 1st in Junior, Intermediate and Senior 4x50m Medley Relays respectively.
The 16 swimmers present at this carnival did TBC proud with this significant achievement. Individual successes and standout performances:
Perry Farrell 1st Senior 100M Individual Medley, 1st 50M Backstroke, 1st 100M Freestyle; Matthew Hyde 1st place Senior 200M Freestyle, 1st 50M Freestyle, 2nd 100M Freestyle, Cameron Hayes 2nd Senior 50M Butterfly, 2nd 50M Freestyle, 3rd 100M Freestyle; Mathew Hansen 3rd Senior 100M Individual Medley, 3rd 50M Backstroke, 3rd 50M Breaststroke; Calum Gilmour 1st place Intermediate 50M Butterfly, 1st in the 100M Freestyle; Sean McKenzie 1st Intermediate 50M Backstroke; Isaac Marshall 1st place Junior 50M Breaststroke, 3rd place 50M Backstroke.
Weightlifters David Liti and Tui-Alofa Patolo have been named flag bearers for the New Zealand Team at the 2025 Pacific Mini Games.