Brad Fullerton and Burton McAdam from Tauranga Boys College won the New Zealand secondary schools title at Mount Maunganui over the weekend.
Another great weekend of beach volleyball unfolded on the Mount's main beach with a record 125 teams entered over four divisions in the VNZ secondary schools beach volleyball championships. The finals were on Sunday afternoon.
In the senior boys competition, a Tauranga Boys College vs Otumoetai College final was predicted, and by the time the semifinals rolled around it was guaranteed with the two schools facing school mates in each semifinal, Otumoetai's Jack Boyle and Cameron Ragg had an upset win over Daryl Lewis and Liam Matheson in the first semi, while McAdam and Fullerton beat Caleb Apeharama and Thomas Reid in the all-TBC semifinal.
The bronze was won by Lewis and Matheson of Otumoetai.
The final was played in front of a large crowd of supporters from both schools. In the first set, Boyle and Ragg shocked the opposition and took a comfortable win to go up 1-0.
Boys College pair McAdam and Fullerton regathered in the second set and it was extremely close throughout.
The Otumoetai boys edged ahead to get to a match point but weren't able to convert it and the match was taken to a third set. McAdam and Fullerton were able to pull away and take the set and the gold medal to the delight of their TBC fans.
The junior girls featured a huge field of 44 teams and the medallists had to play nine or 10 matches.
In the bronze medal match, Otumoetai College's Emily Farron and Kahla Tyson beat Lydia Fookes and Jessie Meiklejohn from Rangitoto College, and for the gold medal Kiana Tawa and Emma Bain from Tauranga Girls College defeated Bethlehem College's Lauren Anning and Micky Wooler, in a tight three-set match.
The junior boys was an extremely tight competition with the final four teams all looking very good to set up a close round of semifinals and medal matches.
In the end it was David Brown and Liam Anderson (Rangitoto College) who took bronze over Jayden Monaghan and Cameron Angland (Spotswood College).
In the final it was revenge for top seeds Ethan Dunn and Eugene Destanis (Campion College) who reversed an earlier result to beat Fletcher Swan and Perry Preston (Mount Maunganui College) and take the gold medal.
In the senior girls' draw it was the top three seeds who came through to take the medals, but not in the order expected.
The bronze was taken by second seeds Zoe Cronin and Bethany Hayman (Westlake Girls' High School). They beat Abbie Meredith and Claudia Richardson (Otumoetai).
In the final, Alex Lawrence partnered Alice Bain and after a string of third places on the national senior tour for Bain, they were favoured to take the title.
But Anna Asamasaga and Delphi MacDonald from Rangitoto College had different ideas and won in straight sets.