WCS home and away

BLUE STICKS: The Wanganui Collegiate 1st X1 hockey girls travelled well to finish 4th overall during tournament week in Ashburton.

The Wanganui Collegiate School under-15 rugby team and the girls 1st X1 hockey side fared best of the travelling sides during last week's national tournament week.

The U15 XV finished third in the age group tournament hosted by Lindisfarne in Hawkes Bay, while the girls hockey finished fourth overall in Ashburton.

First up the WCS U15s beat old rival Rathkeale 38-16 before dealing to Central Hawkes Bay College 38-18.

They then faltered going down 17-nil to St Johns to find themselves in the play-offs for third and fourth.

WCS director of extra curricular, Barry Touzel, said the team were up against the powerful Palmerston North Boys High School U15 B side, but were far from intimidated.

Touzel said in a wonderful display of running rugby WCS emerged comfortable 26-12 winners to take third spot.

"This shows a wonderful improvement on the final position from last year's tournament," Touzel said.

"Logan Henry, top points scorer, and Hadleigh O'Leary were the mainstay of the backline players. The forwards were well lead by the dynamic loose trio of captain Sam Sherriff, Jack Gay and Ben Strang who worked tirelessly to provide an excellent platform of good ball for the backs to use.

"Joe Abernethy, Patrick Donegan and Blair Harrison stood out among the tight forwards during the week. An excellent end to a very successful season."

Touzel said the WCS girls 1st XI Hockey team travelled to Ashburton and played wonderful hockey through the week, beating the likes of Marion College 8-0, Lincoln College 5-2 and a hat trick for Myah Jex- Blake in the 3-0 win over Gore. This was en route to losing a close match against St Mary's 1-0 ending in a most credible 4th position overall.

"A wonderful result for this team that has shown excellent improvement in the season."
WCS sent away more than 120 students across a number of sports codes to tournament week travelling as far as Tauranga in the North Island to Dunedin in the south.

The WCS netball team had a successful tournament on home turf during the week.

"They started strongly beating Feilding High School 28-12 then Iona 38-21 before losing to the strong Napier Girls team by 52-38."

They then entered the play-off positions and produced excellent netball to beat Havelock North 31-26 and eventually losing a local derby match by 30-18 in the play-off for 7th and 8th against Whanganui High School.

"This rounded off a wonderful tournament for these girls and ending 8th is the best result in many years," Touzel said.

Other WCS teams to travel included basketball to Tauranga and junior boys and girls hockey teams to and Hamilton.