Blue Mountain College head boy Gavin Stark was ecstatic to be named in the New Zealand secondary schools rugby team.
Gavin is an outstanding young man with tremendous sporting talent who has the passion to excel in rugby.
Gavin was the only player selected from south of the Waitaki, and Blue Mountain College is extremely proud of this outstanding achievement.
Gavin, the overall Southern region player of the year, has now represented Blue Mountain College in three sports - swimming, athletics and rugby - at national level.
Head girl Sinead Cormack was named the Southern region's female rugby player of the year, and has been named in the Otago secondary schools team at halfback.
Troy McIvor has been named in the Otago under-65kg rugby team, and George Davies and Kane Rabbidge-Moore are in the Otago invitational under-65kg team.
Blue Mountain entered the zone 4 year 9-10 basketball tournament at the Edgar Centre during tournament week.
The school beat Rangi Ruru Girls' School 80-26 and Taieri College 57-38, and lost to Villa Maria College 42-56. Our girls placed fifth in the A grade section of this tournament.
The A netball team attended the South Island netball tournament in Christchurch and finished 18th in B grade out of 32 teams.
Columba College achievements
Columba College finished 13th out of 65 schools in the girls division at the New Zealand secondary schools swimming championships.
Caitlin Deans (year 9) produced outstanding result in the girls 13 grade.
She won gold in the 200m and 400m freestyle, breaking both meet records, silver in the 200m medley and 200m butterfly, and bronze in the 100m freestyle.
She also had two fifths (50m and 100m butterfly) and three sevenths (50m and 100m backstroke, and 50m freestyle), and was the overall points winner for 13-year-old girls in New Zealand.
Columba was fifth in the 200m freestyle relay and seventh in the 200m medley relay.
Danielle Walsh finished ninth in the 200m breaststroke final.
Grace Finnerty (year 10) was selected in the New Zealand BMX team to compete at the world championships in Auckland.
Cross-country
The co-ed cross-country was held on a very challenging course at Kaikorai Valley College on September 10.
The course included hills, mud, forests, a steeplechase gate and a crossing of the Kaikorai Stream.
Juniors ran two laps and seniors three laps in this teams event.
The junior girls race was won by Amelia Seeles (Logan Park High School), with Nicole Bungard and Jessie Scurr (both East Otago High School) second and third respectively.
James Riach (Bayfeld High School) was first in the junior boys, with Logan Park pupils Henri Gaudin and Tayne Clinch second and third respectively.
Britta Hamill and Elle Cuthbert (both Bayfield) combined for a close finish in the senior girls race, with Britta awarded first place by the smallest of margins.
Anna Grimaldi was third, making it a clean sweep for Bayfield.
Aaron Anderson (Bayfield) won the senior boys race, followed by Thomas Woods (Bayfield) and Aydn Watt (Logan Park).
Overall points were tallied. Bayfield won the junior section, with Logan Park second, East Otago third and KVC fourth.
The senior section was also won by Bayfield, with Kaikorai and Logan Park runners-up.
Tokomairiro sports exchange
The annual winter sports exchange between Tokomairiro High School and East Otago High School was held on September 26 at three locations in Dunedin.
The mixed year 7 and 8 hockey was played at the McMillan Centre, and ended in a 2-2 draw.
Netball games were played at the Edgar Centre, with Toko winning both. The A team won 26-18, and the year 9-10 team won 22-20.
The mixed year 7-10 football team played a blinder, winning 9-0, with the highlight being hat tricks scored by Bruce Aldworth and Calum Scoon.
At Kettle Park, the first XV played well - as it has all season - and won 48-24. East Otago won the under-15 rugby game 36-15.
The final tally was four Toko wins, one East Otago win and one draw.
Tokomairiro pupils selected for South Otago touch squads were Tia Valli, Milli Geary (both under-13 girls), Jacob Walls, Daniel Hall (under-13 boys), Dylan Lee, Justin Perkins, Reihana Mason-Waru and Kobi Oliver (under-15 boys).
Kavanagh success
Kavanagh College has been thrilled with the success of many of its teams during the winter season.
The badminton team won the Dunedin senior boys competition.
It lost only two matches during the season, and finished with the most wins above Otago Boys' High School, John McGlashan College and King's High School.
It was the first time Kavanagh College had won the competition.
The team members were Darcy Campbell (captain), Greg Mansfield, James Zhao and Ship Jaijaroen.
The Kavanagh senior A girls basketball team was also successful.
After beating Otago Girls' High School in the Dunedin semifinal, Kavanagh met archrival St Hilda's Collegiate School in the final.
In an excellent performance, the team dominated the game and recorded a convincing win.
This was a fitting way for year 13 leavers Mariana Ioane, Kali Fraser, Hannah Clark and Hayley Samasoni to finish.
The team went on to compete at the South Island championship, where it finished a creditable fourth place.
The senior A boys basketball team also had a successful season.
Great wins in the quarterfinal (over John McGlashan) and semifinal (over St Kevin's) led to a place in the final against Otago Boys'.
Although Kavanagh was not able to match a dominant Otago Boys' team in the final, second place in the competition was a fine result.
The Kavanagh senior boys curling team is having an outstanding season.
It won the Dunedin schools competition, and the South Island schools championship.
The team members are Eugenio Molinatti (skip), Patrick Copson, Hamish Bedwell and Jack Liu.
The first XI boys football team has enjoyed a strong season.
Kavanagh played well throughout the season and finished with a strong win in the playoff for third place in the Dunedin schools competition.
• These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association, which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Trust.
