The team has been training hard since the end of last year and is peaking with strong performances in its most recent outings.
The team contains many secondary school pupils, with six attending local schools.
Kaikorai Valley College pupils Renee Johnson, Tamara Turner, Jessica Wilson and Nicole McCutcheon are joined by Dayna Turnbull (Otago Girls High School) and Holly Johnstone (St Hildas Collegiate School).
The girls are all established touch players in local competitions and are leaders in their school teams.
All of the girls will travel with their respective schools to the South Island secondary school championships in Christchurch this month.
Jessica, Renee and Dayna were named in the South Island under-17 squad in December.
Unfortunately, Dayna and Renee had to withdraw due to representative basketball commitments and injury.
Both girls are in the New Zealand under-18 basketball team.
With players like these six talented girls coming through, touch in Otago is in good hands.
Queens High SchoolAt the Otago athletics championships, Lauren Wilson won both sprint titles, the 100m (12.84sec) and 200m (25.29sec), in the women's age 19 grade.
She also picked up the 200m senior women's title.
Sam McAuley competed two years above her age grade and placed second in the women's age 14 100m (13.56sec).
Nicole Bradley dominated the women's age 19 throwing events, winning the discus (34.47m) and hammer (37.67m) and placed second in the shot put (10.89m).
Otago Boys High School
This year's athletics day was held on Littlebourne in brilliant sunshine with some outstanding performances.
Under-14 athletes to show out included Chris McNoe, who claimed the junior 800m, 1500m and discus titles, and Sam Watson, who won the 100m, 200m, long jump and high jump.
Joel Stevens had a great day in the under-15 grade with wins in the 800m and 1500m, while Jesse Te Maiharoa was the under-15 sprint champion.
In the under-16 grade, Simone Tonga was the sprint champion, with others to shine being Michael Jolly and Brent Cheshire.
Jared Hewitt was too strong in the 400m, 800m and 1500m events, while Dean Rusbatch won both the shot and discus.
Toby Flett put on a display of sprinting that had the large crowd on its feet.
He equalled the 200m record in a time of 22.9sec.
This record was set in 1973 by Peter McLachlan and was equalled in 2004 by Craig Sneddon.
Toby then broke the 100m record by 0.4sec, holding off John Gilmour, Kane Russell and Liam Edwards in 10.5sec.
John also broke the record in a time of 10.8sec.
William Scorgie dominated the middle-distance events.
Kane Russell (javelin, 47.76m; discus, 35.04m) and Blake Ponton (shot put, 11.41m) dominated the field events.
Isaac Gutschlag won the cricket ball throw, the oldest trophy in the sports cabinet, with a distance of 95.25m.
Water-skiing
The inaugural Otago secondary schools water-skiing competition was held at Perkins Pond, near Millers Flat, on February 21.
Organisers from the Otago Water Ski Club were delighted with the 21 entries from schools across Otago.
Club president Greg Sise said the club wanted to hold an event as a way of bringing together young skiers from across Otago.
"There's lots of kids out there skiing recreationally.
"It's great to give them an opportunity to compete," Sise said.
The standard of skiing was high with 14 skiers qualifying to ski the championship course.
This required the skiers to negotiate a slalom course of six buoys while the boat speed increased with each pass.
Results:
Girls under-15 novice: Philippa Dingle (St Hildas) 1, Ashley Wilson (Dunstan) 2, Bailey Sutherland (St Hildas) 3.
Boys under-15 novice: Chris Maunsell (Otago Boys) 1, Henry Arnold (Bayfield) 2, Max Schikker (Mt Aspiring)/Keegan Limmer (Mt Aspiring)/Elliot Hancox (Blue Mountain) 3.
Girls 15 and over: Millie Shaw (South Otago) 1, Emma Stark (South Otago) 2.
Boys 15 and over: Henry Schikker (Mt Aspiring) 1, Mitchell Hancox (Blue Mountain) 2, Glen Isteed (Blue Mountain) 3.
McGlashan success
The New Zealand junior swimming championships, for swimmers 12 and under, were split into three national zones, with Christchurch's QE2 pool holding the southern zone.
The swimmers must gain qualifying times to be eligible to compete in their local zone for regional places, and then times are emailed through to determine national placings.
Matt Henderson (John McGlashan) placed first in the South Island for 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke (12yr boys), swimming personal best times in all these races.
From this, he had the following national placings: first in 50m breaststroke, 35.84sec; third in 100m breaststroke, 1min 20.2sec; and fourth in 200m breaststroke, 2min 52.54sec.
He was also part of the Otago 12 and under boys' 200m medley relay team that placed first in the South Island, and was fourth in New Zealand.
Cromwell College
The young Cromwell College rowing team of Brad Thompson, Ethan Edmonds Scott, Jarred McLachlan, Josh Drummond and Nick Drummond performed very well at the South Island championships at Lake Ruataniwha in February.
The crew placed third in the coxed four and teamed up with Dunstan High School to come second in the eights race.
The team will compete in the Maadi Cup this month.
Gareth Lloyd has been selected for the New Zealand junior ice hockey team for 2010.
He will compete with the team in Mexico at the world third division championships from March 4 to 23.
Surf life-saving
In the year that Surf Life Saving New Zealand celebrates 100 years of volunteer life-saving, St Hildas Collegiate School year 10 pupil Jessie Schneiders has won the top athlete award at the South Island series of the New Zealand ocean athletes competition in Christchurch for the second year.
Competing for Dunedin's St Clair club, Jessie won 13 medals at the 2010 event.
She was presented with her medals by Governor-General Anand Satyanand, at South Brighton beach last month.
- compiled by Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn. Contact: Des Smith des@osssa.org.nz
Calendar
March 5-6: Otago athletics championships, Caledonian
March 12: Intercollegiate golf in Oamaru
March 12-13: Otago-Southland athletics, Invercargill
March 13: Head of the Harbour rowing, Waihola
