News updates from the secondary school sports
Queen's High successes
Year 13 pupil Emma Sutherland competed in the South Island schools cycling championships at Ruapuna Park Raceway in Christchurch last month.
Emma was third in the under-19 time trial and fifth in the under-19 road race.
Queen's pupils also had outstanding performances in the national junior darts championships in Dunedin on July 3-4.
Ripeka Te Moananui won the junior girls title and was selected, along with her sisters Blaize and Svania, in the tournament team.
Taieri College update
The Taieri College 9A netball team travelled to Christchurch in the holidays to compete in a development tournament that had 36 teams competing from around the South Island.
The first day saw wins against Rangi Ruru Girls School, Cashmere High School and Mountainview High School.
This placed the team in the top 16.
Day two saw close losses to Nelson College for Girls and Ashburton College, and a win against Villa Maria College.
The final day resulted in losses to Rangiora High School and South Otago High School with the team finishing 12th.
The cycling team attended the South Island schools road championships in July.
Brad Evans smashed the course record for the 3.4km time trial, setting a time of 4min 15sec.
Julia Gorinski won gold in the under-17 girls 3.4km time trial with 5min 8sec.
The team of Logan Jenkins, Bailey Koppert-Duggan and Daniel Gresswell finished fourth in the under-16 boys 7km time trial.
Brad Evans finishing fourth in the under-20 road race.
Otago Girls' update
During the holidays, two teams competed in the South Island junior development netball tournament in Christchurch.
The year 9 team was placed into division two after the first day's play and ended up eighth, 18th overall out of 32 teams.
The year 10 team also played in division two and placed fifth, 13th overall.
The swimming team had eight pupils at the South Island swimming meet in Invercargill.
It claimed 17 placings and was the third-placed school overall.
In fencing, year 11 pupil Olive Butler competed in the Oceania under-20 competition and placed 10th in the foil competition.
John McGlashan trapshooting
Nine boys attended the Southland intercollegiate shoot, winning several medals.
The McGlashan team finished second after being beaten in the shootoff.
Lachie Elliot and Grant Ramsay won the senior and junior high guns.
In late June, five shooters travelled to Nightcaps and 12 medals were won.
The team was in another shoot-off for second place and took silver.
William Snow, Henry Menzies, Grant Ramsay, Garth Sanders and Clint McAughtrie have all impressed.
Dunstan sports
Seven pupils attended the South Island schools road cycling championships.
The Dunstan team of Kate McDonald, Nakia Randle, Robin Peiper, Georgia Vessey, Liam Aitcheson, Ryan McKay and Tom Vessey was third school overall.
Aitcheson won the under-16 time trial and road race, and teamed with Tom Vessey and McKay to win the under-20 team trial.
Georgia Vessey won the under-15 time trial, and McDonald was second in the under-19 time trial.
Sophie Williamson competed for New Zealand at the Kowalski Junior Tour in Canberra during the holidays.
She won the under-17 ACT criterium and was fourth in the under-17 road race and sixth in the under-17 tour.
Nick Pascoe secured a place in the New Zealand junior ski-cross team and will compete in the world junior championships in Wanaka on August 28.
Stacey Dennison has been selected to attend the Children of the World basketball camp, organised by the International Basketball Federation, in Turkey at the end of August.
Stacey plays for Central Otago at under-15 and under-17 levels, and is also a national triallist.
Columba College news
Zoe Cadzow (year 13) was selected for the Otago Goldrush basketball team, Biddy Skerten (year 13) has been selected in the New Zealand Under-20 athletics team to compete in the 400m hurdles in Cairns in September, and Samara Dalziel (year 11) leaves for Singapore in three weeks to compete for the New Zealand Under-17 hockey team at the Youth Olympics.
St Hilda's netball
In the holidays, the senior A and B netball teams travelled to Australia to compete in the annual Southern Skies tournament.
Each team played 12 round-robin games before post-section groups based on rankings for the finals.
The senior B team, coached by Tracey Hickman, had five wins and seven losses, but did well considering it only took eight players to the tournament due to injuries.
The senior A team had 10 wins and two losses during round-robin play, with wins against Blackheath & Thornburgh College (47-2) and the Dingoes from the Northern Territory (35-2).
The team's two losses came at the expense of Australian teams.
With all teams having to play each other in the round-robin before the finals, the senior A team had a 19-18 win over St Margaret's, from Brisbane, before losing to the same school in the final of the tournament, 21-18.
Standout performers for St Hilda's were captain Hanna McKenzie and vice-captain Olivia Thomas, with Georgie Bryce being the player of the tournament for the team.
Meanwhile, the junior A team competed in the South Island schools development tournament in Christchurch.
This team finished sixth out of 32 teams and was the top Otago school team.
Blue Mountain netball
The junior netball team also competed at the South Island schools development tournament in Christchurch.
The team had pool wins against Buller High School (25-14), Verdon College Y10 (25-12), Opihi College (20-13), Westland High School Y9 (24-15) and Menzies College (17-14).
It suffered losses to Kaiapoi High School (25-13) and Gore High School Y10 (27-19).
The play-off against Verdon for fifth-sixth in their division produced some outstanding netball from shooters Grace Isteed and Destiny Paikea, centre Sinead Cormack and defenders Kate Crawford and Mathilde van Baarle.
Blue Mountain won 20-12.
Area school tournament
The Southern Area Schools team competed with success at the nationals in Christchurch during the holidays.
The Southern team is made up of students from Tuatapere Community College, Lawrence, The Catlins, Roxburgh and Maniototo Area Schools from Otago, and Twizel Area School.
Futsal, basketball, rugby, netball and volleyball were all based at the QE2 complex, while the golfers enjoyed four challenging courses.
The A netball team finished the tournament unbeaten, while rugby and boys volleyball were both second.
Luke Steele played four excellent rounds in the golf.
North and South teams in all codes were selected to play on the final day before the selection and announcement of the New Zealand Area Schools teams.
All national teams, apart from rugby (who are involved in a North Island tour), are paper teams and do not play any games.
Plenty of endeavour in school holidaysThese articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn Inc (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by the Perpetual Trust.
Contacts: Des Smith, Otago Regional Sports Director, PO Box 6303, Dunedin. Ph 470-1337 Fax 470-1786 Email: des@osssa.org.nz Website: www.osssa.org.nz
