South Otago High School
Badminton has taken off under the guidance of Jeff Elliotte and Chris Sly.
Pupils are vying for positions in the teams to compete in the upcoming school interchanges. The first XV and under-15 rugby teams remain unbeaten after five rounds of the competition, and look forward to working hard to continue this form.
Coach Susan Landels was extremely proud of her mixed development hockey team, which recorded its first win of the season last week. The team is mainly made up of year 9 and 10 pupils, some of who have never played before. Ayson White, a year 12 pupil, ably captains the team from the goal.
Year 9 pupil Ella-Rose Lawrence has just returned from the national age-group swimming championships in Wellington. Her best result was fifth in the 50m butterfly. She also had three personal-bests.
The annual cross-country took place last week. Conditions were excellent - clear skies, and a bit mucky underfoot.
Queen's High School
Queen's gymsport participants have been training hard and competing in the qualifying events to be eligible to compete at the national championships in Wellington in September. At the first qualifier in Cromwell, Chloe Robertson, Olivia Burgess, Claudia Douglas-Bell and Leah Anderson all placed in the top four in their events.
An initiative of the QHS Sport in Education project is the aerobics community coaching programme. Current and former Queen's pupils are coaching and mentoring primary and intermediate children. They also competed and placed in the GSNZ competition.
Four teams took part in the annual Caversham relay at King's High School. Unfortunately, the AWD team had no opposition but the pupils ran well and had fun. The top four runners, Ella Scott, Molly Stephenson, Kylie Lyders and Judah Kelly, completed their 2.2km lap in commendable times. Ella was also the top runner at the Logan Park road race where she ran the 2.5km course in 9min 33sec, only 22sec behind the junior girls winner.
Ten year 12 and 13 girls are participating and mentoring in the Rangitahi fitness leadership programme with Bathgate Park and Carisbrook School pupils. It is designed to extend a young person's mind and physical capability with a focus on teamwork, goal setting and leadership. These pupils are meeting at 7am twice a week for eight weeks and showing their commitment and enthusiasm.
Columba College
Caitlin Deans, Devon Familton, Gabrielle Trotter and Danielle Walsh took part in the national age-group swimming championships in Wellington recently. Caitlin won gold in the girls 15 years 800m freestyle, silver in the 400m and 200m freestyle and bronze in the 400m individual medley. Devon set an Otago record (31.40sec) in the girls 15 years 50m backstroke final, in which she finished fifth, and won bronze in the 15 years 100m backstroke. Gabrielle won bronze in the girls 14 years 800m freestyle and, in the 15 years 800m regional relay, Caitlin, Gabrielle and Danielle claimed silver as part of the Otago team.
Kate Guildford has been accepted into the New Zealand Football talent accelerate programme. The first XI beat Christchurch Girls' High School 8-1 to qualify for the premier girls tournament in Taupo during winter tournament week. It is the first time Columba has qualified.
The Columba senior team - Teigan Tarapi, Kate Guildford, Ella Porter and Indiana Williams - won the recent Caversham road relay. The junior 1 team of Meg Sycamore, Chenoa Metua, Claudia Carruthers and Gabrielle Trotter finished second.
Lydia Shirley, Mackenzie Cassie, Isabelle Becconsall-Ryan and Tyla Toheriri-O'Neill were named in the Southern under-18 A hockey team. Jordyn Taylor was selected in the Otago under-19 team, and Milly Nesbitt and Erin Dailey made the under-17 B team.
Mount Aspiring College
Mount Aspiring cyclists are showing strength on both the track and road. In her first season of serious racing, Ellesse Andrews set three records at the New Zealand age-group track championships. Mikayla Harvey spent the April holidays winning races around the country, including a gold medal in the national under-19 road race.
Four MAC teams played in the Otago schools futsal tournament. The senior girls finished first, junior girls second, senior boys third and junior boys fourth. At the New Zealand schools futsal tournament, striker Rimu Roode was awarded the golden boot - not an easy feat in a field of 30 schools, many with stronger teams.
Mount Aspiring had several athletes place at the Otago secondary schools championships. Sammy Burke went on to run an 18sec personal-best in the 3000m at the South Island championships, placing third in her age-group.
Lydia Fookes has been selected in the New Zealand under-19 beach volleyball team to play in the United States world cup series. She will spend some time this winter training with some of the top players in the US.
Still on the world stage, swimmer Hamish McLean has recently been selected for the New Zealand para team to compete at the world championships in Glasgow in July. At only 15, Hamish is the youngest member of the team, and is ranked seventh in the world.
Bayfield High School
Elle Cuthbert has qualified for the world duathlon championships in Adelaide. Elle will represent New Zealand in this race and is one of the very few who have been chosen from the South Island.
Mark McCormack has been nominated for the South Canterbury sports awards for his efforts this past year in inline speed skating. He has been nominated in the team of the year category with three other boys and will be attending the awards dinner in Timaru. This team has dominated the national and Oceania inline speed skating scene with record-breaking performances and podium sweeps at national events.
Curling continues to grow as a sport of choice at Bayfield, with three teams now being formed. Netball has also continued to grow in both numbers and strength. We now have eight well-supported teams that have increased depth of numbers.
The smallbore rifle shooting season started at the beginning of term two. Bayfield has a good number of year 9 and 10 pupils who have taken up target shooting over the past two years.
The girls badminton teams are progressing positively and three teams are now entered in the local competition.
Kavanagh College
Jessie Murphy won the senior girls Logan Park road race held recently, and she now looks forward to the Otago cross-country and national cross-country championships in Dunedin.
Ben O'Farrell has been selected in the Milk Cup football team to travel to Ireland at the end of the term. Ben has some tremendous potential in the sport.
The first XV had a very good win over St Kevin's recently and it is pleasing to see a competitive rugby competition with very few blowouts. The first XI football team has started strongly in the midweek competition, despite a narrow 2-1 loss to Otago Boys'.
The Kavanagh swimming sports were held recently. Winners were: Will Christophers (year 9-10 boys, runner-up Braedan Jansen), Cecile Luc (senior girls, runner-up Lauren McLellan) and and Tadhg Kelly (senior boys, runner-up Owain Morgan). House winner was Bodkin.
• These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
