College sport: Abundance of young talent in nominations

The outstanding efforts by Auckland's young sportsmen and women have attracted a bumper 320 nominations for this year's ASB awards from which the 19th overall winners will be named at the November 12 awards dinner at Eden Park.

The first awards were made in 1991 with cricketer Kyle Brown and future world discus champion Beatrice Faumuina taking the top honours.

They have been followed to centrestage by some of the nation's best young talent including Jonah Lomu, Sarah Ulmer, Emily Drumm, Sheryl Scanlan (nee Clarke), Scott Talbot Cameron, Daniel Slater, Sarah Macky, Valerie Vili, Nathan Richmond, Ryan Archibald, Corney Swanepoel, Phyllis Meti, Simon Child and Terenzo Bozzone.

Many of the rugby category winners have gone on to become All Blacks or sevens stars including Jeremy Stanley, Charles Riechelmann, Pita Alatini, Doug Howlett, Orene Ai'i, Sam Tuitupou and Luke McAlister.

Scanlan, Maria Tutaia and Paula Griffin have all won the netball awards on their way to becoming Silver Ferns.

Stacey Jones won the league award before going on to become a legend for both the Warriors and the Kiwis.

Vili's coach and the Halberg Awards Coach of the Year Kirsten Hellier will be guest speaker at the awards dinner.

Last year's overall winners were swimmer Daniel Bell (Massey High School) and soccer player Anna Green (EGGS).

BASKETBALL

There is no holding back the boys and girls at Mt Albert Grammar.

In a winter in which they have already won handsomely in rugby, soccer and netball, their basketball team shrugged off their "new girls" tag to beat traditional powerhouse Rangitoto College 76-68 in the premier final.

It was a further feather in MAGS' sporting cap as it broke new ground in only the 10th year in which the school has joined the co-educational ranks.

Like their netballers, the MAGS basketball team will now attempt to complete the fairytale when they line-up at the National SS Championships.

They made certain of their time in the limelight with a thrilling overtime win at the North Shore Events Centre in a sport which has been played by girls at the school since only 2002.

The premiers were one of three MAGS girls teams to make it through to grand finals night.

The premier final was a classic with MAGS shooting out to a 17-point lead before Rangitoto clawed their way back to even terms before edging to a five-point lead towards the end of the final quarter.

Two successful free throws from cool-head captain Adoniah Lewis then forced the game to overtime.

Inspired by that, MAGS ran out comfortable winners. For Morgan Roberts it was a great end to a busy schedule after playing in the losing side in the under-17 final. Ashleigh Kelman-Poto was named premier MVP.

Much of the school's success comes from the vision of Api Taulapiu who, with head coach Julie Kelman-Poto, coaches Daryl Cartwright and Bernie Roberts, managers Rachel Laurenson and Anna Holman, built a firm foundation.

Honours in boy's basketball have been shared in four matches between long-time rivals WBHS and Rangitoto this season, but in the one that counted, WBHS, benefiting from the presence of Tall Black Rob Loe, came up trumps 93-81 in claiming the Auckland premier title.

WBHS shot out to an early 10-point lead but the tenacious Rangitoto team clawed their way back, making the most of Loe's early trip to the bench after receiving two early cautions.

Rangitoto kept themselves in the game, particularly in the first half as guard Marko Alexander scored 20 points, but when he was restricted to just five in the third quarter they fell away.

Wade Brownlee's introduction worked a treat for WBHS. He sank four three-pointers in the second quarter and finished with 16 points and the MVP award.

Alexander and fellow guard Aaron Young tried to bridge the gap in the fourth quarter, but the task was beyond them as WBHS held on to win comfortably.

Alexander finished with a match-high 35 points with Loe leading the Westlake scoring with 17.

The rivalries between all finalists will continue at next week's national secondary schools premier tournament in Palmerston North.

CYCLING

It took until the seventh, and last, round of the series but the Diocesan junior girls finally claimed their record at the Avanti Plus Auckland SS time trials.

Making the most of the superb conditions on the Waterfront, the quartet clocked a smart 24m 20.10s to clip almost 10secs from the record set by the same school in 2005.

Their winning time was only 32secs slower than their senior team recorded in winning that race.

Diocesan won both overall girls titles from St Cuthberts.

AGS stormed home by a bare 6secs to pip WBHS in the senior boys. That win enough to get AGS the points they needed to snatch a share of the overall championship with Westlake.

WBHS did, however, claim the Faulding Trophy as the fastest team over the seven race series.

AGS, despite finishing second to Macleans in Sunday's race, took the junior boy's title from Macleans.

Attention now switches to the national SS championships which start in Palmerston North on Saturday with the 41st contest for the Sir Bernard Fergusson time trial championship in which Diocesan and Christchurch BHS will attempt to defend their senior titles.

Record numbers will turn out for the championships with more than 620 individuals and 120 teams from 86 schools expected on the start line.

The individual road races and the points races will be held on Sunday and Monday in Feilding/Manfeild.

NETBALL

A new national champion will be crowned when the top 12 teams square off in next month's secondary schools championships.

Last year's winners, Christchurch's Villa Maria College did not win through this season leaving St Peter's College (Gore) as the South Island's top hope.

Auckland are well-represented with MAGS, AGGS, St Kentigern and WGHS qualifying as the top four schools at the recent Upper North Island Championships.

For AGGS, coached by Janelle Noo, it will be their 14th appearance in the national tournament which they have won four times.

They have also finished runners-up on six occasions. AGGS finished third last year.

MAGS, coached by Paula Smith, are making their sixth consecutive trip to the nationals and will start as one of the favourites following their successes in the Auckland and Upper North Island championships.

For WGHS and St Kentigern it is uncharted territory with both playing at this level for the first time.

St Kentigern, coach by Andrea Leleni and Sue Tapene, finished third in the Upper North Island tournament, one place ahead of the Helene Wilson-coached Westlake side.

The experienced Verdon College, from Invercargill, could test the northerners.

Coached by the redoubtable Robyn Broughton, Verdon College are making their 11th appearance at the national tournament. They have won twice and go in as the second-ranked South Island school.

Palmerston North's Tu Toa, coached by Yvette Causland-Durie, are another danger in their fifth straight appearance and having finished fifth a year ago.

The championships will be played from October 6-9 at Timaru's SBS Event Centre.

TABLE TENNIS

St Kentigern College continue to rule the table.

Their team of Lingnan Kong, Steven Li and Kevin Wu wrapped up the Auckland Inter-School Early Spring Competition with a 4-3 win over local rivals Macleans to add that title to the national crown they won earlier in the season.

The obviously talented players are now planning on representing New Zealand at next year's World Secondary Schools Championships in the Czech Republic.

asbcollegesport.co.nz