Ten senior pupils represented Maniototo at the NZ Secondary School Curling Tournament in Auckland.
It was an amazing result to have both the Maniototo teams playing in the finals. A great achievement for a small country school. Both teams performed exceptionally well and brought home silver medals.
The school is thrilled to have three of its pupils, Jessica Smith, Holly Thompson and Simon Neilson, selected for the New Zealand under-21 curling teams. They will be travelling to Harbin, China in January to compete at the Pacific Asia Junior Curling Championships. Maniototo Area School is very proud of Ashleigh Smith, who was awarded a talented identified umpire award at the South Island Secondary Schools Netball Tournament in Christchurch. Ashleigh recently passed her New Zealand regional theory umpiring examination. Sarah McMillan and Tash Whyte spent the first week of the holidays playing in a national hockey tournament in Dunedin for the Central Otago under-15 team. Reuben Pyle played for the Otago Country under-14 rugby team, despite breaking his arm during a trial match earlier in the year. He had a brilliant end-of-season tournament in Invercargill, when his side won all its games. Ben Smith is in great form. He is putting a lot of time and effort into practising his high jump in preparation for the NZ secondary school athletics to be held in Hamilton in December. Recently Ben won the high jump at the Otago athletics meet with a personal best of 1.62m, equal to his father's own high jump record.
Dunstan High School
The Dunstan boys basketball team attended the secondary schools national tournament for schools under 600 pupils, held in Palmerston North, and achieved second place in the finals. Liam Mulvihill was named in the tournament team.
A team of clay target shooters from Dunstan competed at the New Zealand and North Island secondary schools clay target championships in Hamilton, at the end of September, coping very well in appalling weather. The year 12 team of Luke Whipp, Izaac McKissock, Drew McBride, Jade Miller and Tyler Miller gained silver in the teams event at the North Island championships, and bronze in the national championships. Dylan Crawford placed 11th in single rise at the national champs.
Luke Whipp gained a place in the South Island team, which thoroughly beat the North Island. He and Izaac McKissock were selected to represent Otago in the provincials and skeet on day three and he and Drew McBride were selected for the New Zealand Youth Games in December.
Bryn Gilbert competed in the South Island Secondary Schools Moto-Cross Championships in Timaru in September, finishing first overall in the 14-16 years 250cc class.
Will Meehan recently played for New Zealand under-17 in softball tournaments in Adelaide and Sydney. The team placed second in Adelaide. In Sydney, it beat New South Wales under-17 and lost to New South Wales under-19.
Campbell Pearson and Emma Dick swam very well at the New Zealand short course championships in Wellington during the holidays. Campbell gained bronze in the 50m backstroke and silver in the 100m backstroke, which puts him in the top two in his age group in New Zealand. Campbell also was selected to represent Otago in the national relays and the South Island Makos in the inaugural New Zealand zonal meet. The Makos beat all other teams at this meet and Campbell won two golds and a bronze. Awards recipients.- Hamilton Trophy for team of the year 2013: Boys First XV rugby. Chris Fowle Trophy for contribution to DHS sport: Dylan Hoskins.
Maynard-Penny Award for Fair Play: Daniel Ryley and Jaydin Aburn (jointly awarded).
Kaikorai Valley College
In September a team of 13 Kaikorai Valley College Judo Club members competed at the So Kan Ju Judo Tournament in Timaru. The tournament was a huge success for them, as they collected 10 medals.
Four girls competed in the senior girls. Mariza Antonopolou fought strongly and won gold in her division, and Jessica Brownlie gained a bronze. Olivia Druce won silver in the girls cadets. Tessa Brownlie also gained silver in her category in the senior girls and fought bravely in the girls open to win bronze. Kruz Cleminson fought for the first time in the cadets and won silver. Tyler Jordan also fought extremely well to win gold in a mixed category.
KVC had its most successful day in the annual secondary schools doubles petanque tournament at the Caversham petanque centre, at the end of term 3. The school not only secured the Schools Challenge Trophy for the third year in a row, but also had three doubles combinations in the semifinals. Jack Malcolm and Quinn McIntosh won the final in convincing fashion, 14-4. KVC retains the title, which it won in last year's tournament.
Touch continues to be a sport where Kaikorai Valley College succeeds.
Thomas Johnson (year 12) has recently returned from Australia, where he was a member of the New Zealand under-17 boys touch team. While on tour, Thomas was one of the top try-scorers with eight tries from as many games.
Ryan McCutcheon, Nathan Wilkie (both year 13) and Johnson have all been named in the Otago under-19 boys team. Shanneka Pearson and Rebekah Wairau have been named in Dunedin Metro teams, along with other year 7 and 8 players.
For the first time in some years, the school has two teams entered in the adult grades at the Oval on Tuesday nights. To date, both teams are undefeated and the development work the school has been doing is starting to reap results.
Logan Park High School
Kingaroy High School, from Queensland, Australia visited Logan Park as part of its South Island Tour. Logan Park was given a lesson in how to play touch. With rugby league skills, the Kingaroy mixed team was very fast and skilled. Kingaroy won this competition easily.
The tide turned when futsal was the game. Logan Park girls easily beat the Kingaroy girls 5-0. Kingaroy boys never gave up against Logan Park's top boys futsal side but Logan Park was just too strong, winning 11-0. Overall, it was a great day of sports. Both schools enjoyed meeting each other and the day was very social.
Otago Girls' High School
OGHS pupils performed very well at the recent aerobics nationals in Dunedin. In the teams section, first place went to Tyler Barnes and Bree Rowe Clarkson in year 10. Olivia Jackson and Jess Barron in year 13 gained second place. In the individual competitions, Lauren Johnson (year 10) was placed third, Holly Paterson (year 10) was placed second and Julie Lamont (year 12) was also placed second. Kendyl Taiawa also competed with a hip-hop crew from Rasa Dance and picked up a silver medal and most promising dance crew.
Eliza Booth and Amelia King both competed in the 2013 Otago Junior Spring Tennis Open during the holidays. Eliza was first in the girls under-16 and first in the doubles. Amelia was second and third in the doubles.
In swimming, Erin Ford, Alice Moran and Tegan Duncan competed at the New Zealand short course championships recently. Erin came sixth in the 800m freestyle, Tegan came third in the 200m breaststroke (17- and 18-year-old final) and fourth in the 100m breaststroke.
Two Otago Girls' curling teams flew to Auckland for four days to compete in the New Zealand secondary schools national championships. The two teams ended up in third and fourth place and played off against each other in their final game.
At the recent indoor rowing regatta held at the Otago University Rowing Centre, Juliette Lequeux was first in the under-15 500m and 2000m, Maddy Dixon was second in the under-15 500m and Karley Wilden-Palms was third in the under-16 500m and 2000m races.
East Otago High School
Paige Church and Courtney Martin were selected for the Otago secondary school rugby team but missed playing the schoolgirls tournament due to being selected for the Otago women's rugby team. Both girls' debut was a win against Taranaki on September 21, which was televised live. Since then, Paige and Courtney have been in the Otago squad.
Year 7 pupil Lauren Keen and year 8 pupils Jenna Thorne, Taylor Thorne, Gabriella Snell and Keenan Bridger were all part of the South Island under-13 hockey development tournament in Ashburton in the holidays.
Year 9 pupil Anna Lindsay was named junior umpire of the year at the Dunedin Netball Centre umpires awards at the beginning of October. A committed Anna only started umpiring in 2013 and completed all her requirements and accomplished her umpire's badge qualification in time to umpire at the South Island secondary schools tournament in Christchurch.
East Otago High School's sporting achievement awards will be held in the school's D G Murray Hall tonight at 7pm.
John McGlashan College
The national secondary schools swimming championships were held in early September in Hamilton. Thomas Heaton was the sole school representative from John McGlashan.
There were 123 schools and 478 swimmers from throughout the country competing.
Thomas had the following top-eight results in the boys 14 years old grade: gold in the 400m freestyle, silver in the 200 freestyle, fifth in the 200m backstroke and 8th in the 50m backstroke and 100m backstroke.
Thomas and other boys attended the South Island championships in Blenheim. Thomas gained four gold medals and three other top-10 placings and Han Zhang also performed outstandingly, gaining seven gold and two silver medals. Courtland Ellis gained four gold, four silver and a bronze medal.
The 2013 swimming sports were held at Moana Pool on Friday, September 20. Three records were broken this year: by Han Zhang in the 100m medley and 50m breaststroke, and by Ben Simmers in the 50m freestyle. On September 21, 2013, we held our annual sports dinner. This year we were lucky enough to gain the services of John Hart and Suzie Bates as guest speakers. More than 200 people gathered at the Savoy to celebrate sport at the college. Tony Sycamore announced that a sports council would be formed and a new role of director of sport would be established for the start of 2014.
Taieri College
Earlier this month, Taieri College held its senior and junior blues ceremonies. The blues ceremony is a celebration of those pupils who have either achieved Otago representative honours or won titles at least to the Otago level. Traditionally, the blues ceremony has been one event, but due to the increasing success of our pupils, two events are now held. At the junior blues event, 56 received their blues across 26 sporting codes, ranging from athletics to water polo. At the senior blues evening, another 27 senior pupils received their blues in 17 sports codes.
The highlight of both events was the naming of the sportsman and sportswoman of the year. In the junior ceremony, Kaylee Bezett (netball and basketball) and Ben McKinlay (basketball and athletics) were named the 2013 junior sportspeople of the year for their achievements across several codes at the Otago level. Later that evening, Will Pickering (water polo) and Tessa Nicol (football) were named sportspeople of the year for their achievements in representing New Zealand. The team of the year was the Taieri College First XV rugby team, for winning the Otago under-18 competition.
St Hilda's Collegiate
The juniors are looking forward to junior tournament week, which is being held in November and gives them the opportunity to get extra competition in a tournament format.
The junior water polo and volleyball teams are preparing for South Island tournaments and the senior A touch team, the First XI cricket team and the athletics team are busy training for national secondary school tournaments in early December.
The school is very proud of two of its cricketers who are making great progress in the sport. Caitlin Blakely and Polly Inglis have spearheaded the well-performed St Hilda's First XI cricket team for the past four seasons. Both Caitlin and Polly are about to embark on their second season with the Otago Sparks team in the national domestic competition.
Since coming together to open the batting for the First XI at the NZCT New Zealand secondary school girls finals in Taupo in 2010, Caitlin and Polly have amassed a formidable record at national level. In the 12 games where they have batted together at the top of the innings, their opening partnerships have totalled a little over 500 runs at an excellent average of 46. The bowling and fielding skills of the team have developed significantly this year as well, due in no small part to Suzie Bates visiting every fortnight on a Wednesday morning at 7.30am to give her guidance and wisdom. Recently Mark Bracewell has been assisting as well. Coach Neil Rosenberg is confident that the team can improve on its very creditable third place at last year's national finals when it travels to Palmerston North in early December to try to win the NZCT national competition.
King's High School
It is time for a final wrap-up of the winter season before turning our focus to the summer season. The school has continued to have success with ice hockey teams, culminating in two of its pupils, Liam Kinraid and Callum McLaren, being selected for the southern junior elite team. This team went on to win the gold medal against Auckland in the tournament final. Other notable achievements were notched up in rowing, where Mitchell Anderson, Mitchell Booth, Michael Freeman and Quinn Hawthorn dominated the Wilson Regatta, on Lake Waihola. The shooting team members continue to impress. Sam Young, Josh Brosnahan and Will Cottle were selected for the Otago under-21 team that competed in the South Island interclub teams championships, winning the gold medal.
Josh Aitcheson and Rory O'Neil also experienced success at nationals when playing for the Otago under-17 basketball team.
Congratulations must also go to Jonny Thorn, who returned from the gruelling New Zealand under-18 hockey squad selection camp held over the holidays, to find out, after an agonising wait, that he has been selected for the team, which will tour Australia in early February next year. The softball team is looking to kick on from its great result of winning the South Island tournament. The team has now qualified for nationals and will be looking to the likes of Will Mieklejohn, Mitchell Finnie, Sean Bennett, Hayden Carey and Christian Amos-Dowie to lead the way. Captain of the team Will Mieklejohn has just returned from a tour of Australia with the New Zealand under-17 team, so brings a wealth of knowledge to the team.
• These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association, which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Trust.
