Western Heights crew set up local derby at nationals

Western Heights High School set up a good local derby at the national secondary schools rowing championships yesterday after coming second in their repechage.

The crew will meet fierce rivals John Paul College in the A final of the girls under 16 coxed quad at the Maadi Cup, being held in Twizel.

Coach Chris Pearson said it was a good performance from the Western Heights crew (Stacey Tamblin, Emma Cronshaw-Hunt, Hannah Cox, Alice West and cox Phoebe Johnston). They were sitting in fourth place at the halfway mark and worked their way up to second at the finish.

"That's the way they normally finish," Pearson said. "They are good at finishing strongly".

The third day of Maadi championships was taken up with repechages to decide which crews would race in semifinals today and A and B Finals after that.

Another good result from Western Heights yesterday came from the girls under 18 novice quad (Courtney MacDonald, Amber Stonehouse, Jenna O'Connell, Kayla Merriman and cox Jenny Kim). They only started rowing in November but managed to finish fourth yesterday and now progress to a B final later this week.

Another Rotorua rower to progress is Mania Oxenham from Rotorua Boys' High School who will go to the boys under 16 single and will compete against Lakes High's Bradley Grant, who qualified earlier in the regatta.

The Rotorua Girls High School quad (Greer Murray, Samantha Grace, Helen Payne, Gisele Foster and cox Tara Moberly) finished fifth in their under 18 repechage and are now through to the B finals for this event and its under 17 equivalent.

In the boys under 18 lightweight double, Taylor Boyce and Scott Macalister put in a strong finish but missed out on a B final by just two seconds.

Rotorua crews have done well in the first three days of the six-day regatta with six crews already in A finals, four through to B finals and nine qualifying for semi-finals.