Cross-country popular at MAC

Mount Aspiring College

Cross-country running is taking off at Mount Aspiring College and the team of nine athletes did well at the Otago championships in Mosgiel.

Sammy Burke (under-16 girls), Janus Staufenberg (under-16 boys), Phoebe Young (under-15 girls) and Gregor Findlay (under-15 boys) finished first, Nick Toepfer (under-16 boys) was second, Bella Fraser (under-15 girls), Fiona Murray (under-14 girls) and Julius Staufenberg (under-14 boys) were third, and Matthew Prince (under-15 boys) was fourth.

At the New Zealand secondary schools cross-country at the Gladfield Golf Club, Sammy was fifth in the senior girls race and Gregor seventh in the junior boys.

The school entered six teams in the Top Bike competition hosted by Cycling Southland.

In a large field of years 7-8 teams, the school placed first, second and third-equal.

The winning team consisted of Emma Smith, Estelle Norman, Maude Rogers, Aden Cassaidy, Quinn Curtis and James Suddaby.

MAC was represented by three teams at the Otago secondary schools netball tournament in Dunedin.

The MAC A team improved its ranking from 10th to sixth in the senior competition, notching up two great wins from six tough games.

In the intermediate grade, the year 10 A team finished seventh.

The year 9 A team gained plenty of confidence throughout the tournament and finished a respectable 11th.

On the rugby field, the MAC First XV had back-to-back wins over Taieri College and Kavanagh College.

The team is showing strong defence and continues to improve.

Ellis Meyer-Budge, Teegan Vink, Bailey Nolet and Zac Shields have all had consistently good performances.

 

South Otago High School

The first XV has ended the round robin unbeaten, and was presented with the winner's trophy after the 21-10 win over Kavanagh College on Saturday.

The under-15 rugby team has also been very successful this year, and had its first loss on Saturday.

This week, the two girls rugby teams will play each other in the semifinal of the Otago schoolgirls competition.

The boys football team is still unbeaten in the Saturday club competition.

It has been goals galore, 12 going to Vicente Sera, the top-scorer.

 

Bayfield High School

It has been a busy time with pupils competing in both the annual Mountain View exchange and the Co-Ed Cup.

Basketball, debating, hockey and netball were particular strengths in the exchanges, and the targeted growth sports of football, badminton and rugby also showed great development and increased depth.

Pupils involved in the Sports Development programme have been busy completing their coaching certificates through the Sport Otago Coaches in Schools course.

This is an intensive six-week period that includes hours of practical coaching, and will give pupils their first of many coaching qualifications and experiences.

Bayfield High School engages in this programme as part of a three-year rotation that complements skills students have already learnt in sports massage, and will later learn about sports strapping.

Shannon Hope has been selected to represent New Zealand in the under-19 UCI world cup cross-country mountain biking in Andorra in September.

There will be 60 riders competing.

 

Cromwell College

Cromwell College pupils have been busy this term with many sporting opportunities.

Two weeks ago, Cromwell had the annual sporting exchange with Waimate High School. Cromwell hosted the seniors and Waimate the juniors.

In Waimate, Cromwell dominated the exchange, winning seven of the eight games in rugby, netball, football, basketball and miniball.

In Cromwell, the first XV showed great skill and dominance to win 67-12.

Cromwell had two teams travel to Queenstown for a Central Otago basketball tournament which the senior mixed team won in a nail-biting final. The junior boys team had some tough competition and came fourth.

Saturday netball is in full swing with eight teams - the most for several years - playing this season.

The Cromwell under-16 rugby team plays a touring Australian team tomorrow.

 

Tokomairiro High School

On June 16, Tokomairiro pupils competed in their first co-ed sports tournament run by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association.

Six co-ed schools from Dunedin joined together for a day of sport.

Fifty-five pupils from Tokomairiro ranging from year 9 to year 13 competed in three of the six sporting codes on offer.

Tokomairiro was third in the rugby 10s, fourth in the senior girls netball and fourth in both the girls and boys hockey.

Jorjah Mason-Waru, Nikki Hall and Mackenzie Frost have been selected in the South Otago under-14 netball team.

Hamish Lowery and Kaleb Hill (under-38kg), Aiden Mallon and Josh Sanders (under-48kg), and Liam Ferguson, Hoani Wipaki and Zayde Francis (under-65kg) were selected in South West Otago rugby teams.

 

Queen's High School

Gemma Clydesdale and Hayley Kettings are working hard, along with other secondary school rowers who applied for the winter development programme, run by Otago Rowing Association.

Their selection was based on last season's results.

The training is both on and off the water, with a focus on core strength, nutrition, indoor rowing and sports psychology.

India Barrett's shooting is going from strength to strength, having joined the trapshooting group from King's High School.

Scarlett Rogers, Josie Hopkins, Ella Scott and Molly Stephenson all competed in the Otago cross-country championships at Gladfield. Both Molly and Ella ran there again in the New Zealand championships.

The Queen's team competed in the second Otago gymsports aerobics competition in Cromwell.

The team consisted of seven Queen's pupils and seven girls from other schools, who are part of the Aerobics Community Coaching programme.

Competitors ranged from 5-17 years.

All of the step 8 girls - Kylie Lyders, Lucy Elliott and Sian Remon - who are trialling for the national championships, achieved the qualifying mark for the second time.

Step 4 competitors Leah Anderson, Chloe Robertson, Olivia Burgess and Claudia Douglas-Bell all were first or second in their events.

 

Columba College

The year 9 six-person team won a bronze medal at the New Zealand cross-country at the Gladfield Golf Club on Saturday. This was a first for Columba.

Team members were Meg Sycamore, Audrey Hayes, Ashlee Turner, Hannah Cross, Charlotte Wheeler and Abby Anderson.

Kate Guildford has been selected in the New Zealand under-20 football camp in the July holidays in Auckland. Kate and Mikyla Gray have been selected in Football South's Talent Accelerate programme.

Tarryn Dickson (under-19 netball), Lily Cunningham (under-17 netball), Rose Johnston, Emma Stackhouse, Laura Becker, Holly Lang, Grace Broshnan and Ellie Duncan (Southern under-18 development hockey) earned representative selection.

Columba runners produced excellent results at the Otago cross-country championships. Meg Sycamore won the under-14 title with Audrey Hayes fifth and Hannah Prout sixth.

Isabelle Becconsall-Ryan was second in the under-15 race followed by Gabrielle Trotter (seventh) and Chenoa Metua (13th).

Indiana Williams was second in the under-16 race followed by Teigan Tarapi (third) and Ella Porter (fifth).

The under-14, under-15 and under-16 teams all won their respective grades.

Kate Guildford was the sole Columba representative in the senior 4km race, finishing a strong fourth.

Caitlin Deans has been selected by Swimming NZ to enter the Pathway to Podium programme for talented swimmers.

 

Kavanagh College

Jessie Murphy continued her good form in winning the senior girls race at the Otago cross-country championships in 16min 50sec.

She went on to compete at the New Zealand cross-country on Saturday, achieving a creditable 25th out of 113 competitors.

Kavanagh continued its dominance of the annual co-ed sports tournament, winning the Dennis Slowley Cup. Kavanagh has won this every year since the tournament started in 2011.

Kavanagh, Taieri College, Bayfield High School, Kaikorai Valley College, Logan Park High School and Tokomairio High School were the competing schools.

Kavanagh won the boys football, the boys and girls badminton, the girls senior basketball, the boys and girls junior basketball, and the boys and girls hockey.

Kavanagh also won the overall junior Catholic schools tournament in Dunedin recently.

Kavanagh, St Kevin's College, Verdon College and St Peter's College competed for the Bishop Boyle Trophy in rugby, football, netball and basketball.

 

Otago Boys' High School

Year 12 pupil Adrian Fou was invited to play for the Auckland Maori under-17 team at the national Maori rugby league tournament over Queens Birthday weekend in Rotorua.

The team won the final against Waikato 22-20.

Adrian chose to come to Otago Boys' High School for the sports challenge, but he got much more than he bargained for.

''The culture to perform both in the classroom and on the sports field is very strong at the school. I moved into the hostel and received great support from staff and students to settle in and then improve my school work. The environment at the school and the hostel lets me focus fully on my work so I know that assessments are completed, allowing me to then focus on my rugby.''

Lachie McGregor (17) has continued to achieve in cycling.

Lachie has just been to Adelaide, finishing third overall in a tier-one international track series.

The New Zealand under-19 team of which he was part finished second in the 4000m team pursuit, winning nine of the 10 races. Because of this success, the New Zealand team has qualified for the world championships in Kazakhstan in August.

 


 These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.

 

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