SECONDARY SCHOOL SHOWDOWN

Records fell at this year's Rod Dixon Mile held on the fast new track at Kensington Park.
Both the girls' and boys' records were broken in Sunday's miles, jointly organised by LJ Hooker Athletics Whangarei and Otamatea High and sponsored by the Skin and Vein Clinic in Whangarei.
The event attracted entries from top Auckland, Timaru and Whangarei secondary school runners, as well as several well-performed intermediate and primary school runners.
With Kerikeri High's Melissa Simpson injured and out of the girls' field, Northland's runners were outrun by Diocesan's Georgie Grgec - gold medallist in the recent NZ 5km under-19 women's road championships - and Ella Mangan-Walker, from Epson Girls' Grammar.
Grgec started conservatively trailing Mangan-Walker. But in lap two Grgec took the lead and gradually opened up an unassailable gap to finish in 5:13.34, breaking Hannah Newbould's 2008 record of 5:22.91 set on Otamatea High's grass track.
Grgec was pleased with her record run, but felt the strain towards the end when she piled on the pace. "I had no real plan - just sit and see how it went. I decided to pick it up a little bit [after a lap] - it was good but it was still hard.
"I was getting tired in the last lap, but the track is nice to run on," she said.
Mangan-Walker took second in 5:27.09, ahead of Tayla Going, Whangarei Girls High, in third place in 5:43.91.
Rachel Martin, from Kerikeri High, was the first Northlander home taking fourth in 6:17.33.
In the boys' mile, four runners took over after the initial rush, with Timaru Boys' High's Brett Clifford leading, closely followed by Mt Roskill's Haile-Melekot Tesfaye, Kamo High's Ryan Slater and Mt Roskill's Tadele Tekle-Haimanot - winner of the 2008 Rod Dixon mile in 2008 and second to Cameron Graves last year.
Tekle-Haimanot made his move with 600m to go, opening up a metre gap over Clifford and Tesfaye and looking as though he had it in the bag, but around the final bend Clifford clawed back the ground and powered down the straight grabbing victory over Tekle-Haimanot in 4:35.53, breaking Ryan Smith's 2007 record of 4:42.3.
For Clifford the race went according to plan. "To stay with the front bunch and then hold on if the pace picked up ... Down the back straight [in the last lap] he [Tekle-Haimanot] dropped me a bit but I kept it to what I need to overtake somebody at the end of a race. I've always had a bit of speed from my soccer," Clifford said.
He was "pretty happy" with his time and to get the record.
Tekle-Haimanot recorded 4:36.8 for second, heading off Tesfaye finishing in 4:42.79 for third place, and Slater in 4:47.6 for fourth - and first Northlander.
Ethan Carte from Kamo High, was fifth, followed by Travis Connelly, Kamo High; Brian Thom, Otamatea High; Shayne Maxwell, Whangarei Intermediate; and the three Croxton brothers - Lindo, Bucklands Beach Primary, and Jonathan and Kieran, both Pakuranga College.