The Bayfield High School senior boys volleyball team is now eighth in the country, up from 37th last year, following its success at the national secondary schools championships in Palmerston North late last term.
Bayfield qualified by beating John McGlashan 3-2 in the final of the Otago championship.
Bayfield was in a pool with Tauranga Boys' College, Spotswood College and Riccarton High School at the national tournament.
A 3-0 loss to top seed Tauranga Boys' was followed by a 3-0 win over Spotswood.
A must-win game against Riccarton to make the top 16 followed and the team played possibly its best volleyball of the tournament.
Bayfield, led by Sam Walker and Toby Brash, won 3-0.
The team was then grouped with Trident High School, Christchurch Boys' High School and Nelson College.
A 3-0 loss to Trident was followed by an outstanding game against Christchurch Boys'.
A tight first set was followed by some fine play from Bayfield and it won 3-0, with Oli Smith and Robert Pu outstanding.
This led to the game against Nelson College, which went to five sets, Bayfield just pipped 16-14 in the final set.
This put Christchurch, Nelson and Bayfield on equal points, Bayfield progressing with a better points ratio.
The first match in the top eight was against Orewa College.
Despite winning the first set, nerves got to the Bayfield team and it was beaten 3-1.
Play-offs for fifth to eighth places followed, consecutive losses to Tauranga Boys and Otahuhu College leaving Bayfield in eighth.
Softball
Eight boys teams and five girls teams competed in the secondary schools second-division South Island softball competition at Ellis Park recently.
The boys final was between Otago Boys' and Nayland College.
Otago Boys' had a strong line-up with Junior Black Sox squad member Ben Watts leading from the front.
He was supported by Otago representatives Cameron Watts, Matthew Watts, Hoani Iva Keen, Duncan Officer, Jacob Wedlock and Ryan Williams.
Nayland College also had a strong line-up, with Nelson representative and Southern Pride player Dominic Mautu-Mason on the pitching mound.
It was a tight battle right to the seventh inning with the score tied at 3-3.
Otago Boys' batted last and, with one down, Watts doubled to left field to bring brother Cameron Watts to the plate.
Nayland College elected to intentionally walk both Cameron and Ryan Williams.
This brought Kieran Paterson up and, with a great swing, he smacked the ball to right field, scoring Ben Watts to finish the game.
In the girls competition, Dunstan High School dominated the double round robin with eight wins from eight games.
Dunstan faced Marian College in the final and won 22-2 inside five innings.
The highlight of the final was Courtney Davies' hitting the outfield fence and just missing out on an automatic home run.
Futsal
The Otago schools tournament last month featured two days of intense and exciting competition.
The largest school Futsal tournament in the country ended with teams from five different schools taking home winners' medals.
Forty intermediate and secondary school teams competed in the tournament, playing more than 120 games at the Edgar Centre.
St Hilda's narrowly defended its under-19 title against a very strong Taieri College team, which had recently won the term one Dunedin schools league.
Otago Boys' High School was unable to defend its title against Logan Park in the under-19 boys competition after a tough final.
Bayfield turned a few heads with some classy futsal to win the under-16 boys grade.
The top two teams in each division have now qualified for the champions of champions national tournament in Timaru on June 4-6.
King's touch and cricket
King's High School has qualified for the national secondary schools touch tournament for the second year in a row.
Stand-out performers at the South Island championships were Dan Fowler (most improved player), Tryon Pelasio (most valuable player), Logan Todd and Caleb Grey.
Several pupils were also chosen to compete in the national touch competition.
Fowler, Pelasio and Jayden Dovey played in a team that finished third, and Tyron's performance resulted in his being selected to play for the New Zealand Under-17 team.
Year 9 student Joel Meade has received the Brendon McCullum Scholarship for 2010 after an outstanding season in which he scored 546 runs at an average of 68.25, while at the bowling crease Joel took 11 wickets at an average of 13.5.
Other stand-out junior players to gain cricket scholarships this year were Taylor Cumberland and Kane McKay.
Dunstan equestrian
The Dunstan High School equestrian team, of seven riders, travelled to Mosgiel to compete in the Otago secondary schools dressage and jumping competition.
The competition consisted of three phases: dressage, show jumping and show cross.
There were 12 teams each consisting of at least four riders. Dunstan finished fourth overall with individual placings to to Kate McLean (first class 2 dressage), Alice Finch (second class 1 dressage), Shanay Gladstone (fourth class 3 dressage), and Kimberley Ashton (second and fourth class 4 jumping 65cm).
Weekly Bowls
For six weeks club members from Dunedin Bowls Clubs introduced, coached and supervised games of lawn bowls for Dunedin secondary school students at the Andersons Bay and Kaikorai Bowling greens.
The programme finished March 29 with play-offs for ladder positions.
Top four placings from the two greens. -Andersons Bay: Kavanagh 1, Greg and James Bishop 1; Composite 2 Harrison Gonsalves ( Kaikorai Valley ), Callum Horwell ( Logan Park ) 2; Otago Boys 1, Elliot and Oliver Mason; Taieri 1, Max Hill and Michael Reynolds 3 equal.
Kaikorai: St Hilda's 2, Sophie Stone and Ruby Imlach 1; Composite Jacob Roberts (Otago Boys) and Bradley Torrance ( Kings ), 2; John McGlashan 1, Sam Rowley and Angus Ford; St Hilda's 1, Eilish Roberts and Jess Archibald 4.
Touch
The weekly touch competition at Bishopscourt came to its conclusion in the last week of term on another fine afternoon.
Only one week was lost due to the weather and, with the number of teams up on previous terms, it was a very successful competition.
Junior and senior boys and girls grades were all keenly contested with some grade winners decided only by points difference.
In the junior A girls grade, Columba White and St Hildas White tied with five wins apiece. Columba took the grade with a points differential two better than St Hildas, whos Red team finished in third place.
Bayfield prevailed in the junior B grade, ahead of the Columba Blue and Green teams.
In the junior A boys grade, Otago Boys Blue and Taieri Gold finished on 12 points each, with OBHS finishing with the superior points differential.
Taieri was again to the fore in the B grade, with its Blue team heading the two Kings teams, Leopards and Cougars, by one point.
The senior girls grade was keenly contested among the big three of Columba, St Hildas and Kaikorai Valley.
Columba won the grade with 20 points, from St Hildas on 17 and Kaikorai Valley on 16.
Columba was the beneficiary of an extra game.
The senior boys was a battle between the big two, with the Otago Boys 1 team heading the Kings Sabretooths and Tigers for second and third places.
Water polo
Friday night water polo also wrapped up, with finals and play-offs for places on the last night.
Otago Boys beat Kings High 10-3 in what was a tight contest for much of the match to take the junior title.
St Hildas Silver beat Otago Girls for third place.
In the open grade, two goals was the biggest margin in the five play-off games for minor places.
Kings and Taieri Mixed finished 8-8 in the battle for one and two in the bottom section, and Kavanagh and John McGlashan played out a 6-6 thriller to tie for third place in the top section.
The open final between Otago Boys and Columba was affected by the swimming championships ton at the same time, and Columba took the win by default.
- compiled by Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn: des@osssa.org.nz
Calendar
April 16-17: South Island orienteering, Nelson.
April 23: Weekly basketball starts.
April 24: Boys' rugby starts.
April 27: Girls' badminton starts.
