Otago athletes won 20 medals at the national secondary schools championships in Timaru at the weekend.
The haul was made up of seven gold, nine silver and four bronze, King's High School athletes winning almost half of the medals at the 43rd annual championships.
With four gold, four silver and a bronze to show from the two and a-half days of competition, it was the school's best result at the event.
Year 12 pupil Felix McDonald won gold in the senior boys long jump and silver in the 110m and 300m hurdles, before combining with Jacob Granger, Rory O'Neill and Ben Kiore to win the senior boys 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
McDonald is part of the Athletics New Zealand Pathway to Podium programme, which identifies him as a contender for the 2020 or 2024 Olympic Games.
He was in fifth place in the long jump after a 6.75m best after five attempts, but won gold after a clutch 6.90m jump on his sixth and final attempt.
To add to the pressure, his fourth and fifth jumps were fouls after he overstepped the mark.
"They were massive jumps but I was just over the board,'' he said.
"If I got the board, then I knew I would win. Megan [Gibbons], my coach, told me before my last jump to bring it back a foot. So I brought it back a whole foot on my run up and then absolutely nailed it.''
Despite finishing behind winner Oliver Miller, of St Peter's College, in the 300m hurdles, McDonald broke his own Otago 17-years record.
His time of 38.65sec broke the record he set at the Caledonian Ground last month by 0.60sec.
McDonald clocked 14.72sec to win silver in the 110m hurdles, 0.35sec behind Ben Collerton, of St Andrew's College.
He then ran the third leg in the 4x100m relay, as King's stopped the clock in 43.06sec to win gold ahead of highly fancied St Paul's Collegiate.
In the 4x400m relay, McDonald ran the first leg in a convincing display, which enabled O'Neill to cross the line more than 3sec ahead of Wanganui Collegiate, in 3min 26.56sec.
McDonald capped the weekend by being named one of five Otago athletes in the New Zealand secondary schools track and field team.
O'Neill, Christina Ashton (Queen's), Maddy Spence (Columba) and Adrianna Mawhinney (Dunstan) also made the team, while John McGlashan's Oli Chignell was named as one of nine athletes of the meet for his win in the senior boys 6km road race.
King's High School was perhaps unlucky not to add more gold to its tally, after the 4x400m junior team of Sam Gouverneur, Jack Addis, Josiah Lesa and Max Aitcheson was disqualified for a line violation after winning the race.
A botched baton exchange also cost them a chance of winning the 4x100m relay race.
Lesa did manage to win gold in the junior boys 100m hurdles, when he edged Joshua Shih, of Auckland Grammar, by 0.03sec in the final.
Gouverneur was on the wrong side of a 0.03sec margin between first and second when he claimed silver behind Mikael Starzynski, of Wairarapa College, in the junior boys 400m.
Ashton made sure her final secondary school championships finished on a high by winning the senior girls 100m hurdles.
A year after being pipped for gold by Phoebe Edwards, of Wellington East Girls' College, she reversed the result in Timaru.
Ashton, who will study physical education at the University of Otago next year, won gold in 14.25sec, 0.16sec ahead of Edwards.
The Queen's High School pupil and Edwards were good friends off the track, but the competitive duo always pushed each other on it, Ashton said.
Chignell and Spence also had reason to celebrate in their final secondary school championships.
Chignell won the senior boys 6km road race in emphatic style, finishing 28.30sec ahead of Joey Dwyer, of Cashmere High School, in 18min 21.40sec.
He went straight to the front after the gun and led the chasing group by 10m after just 1km.
"It was just the plan, to set out as fast as I could and see if anyone could go with the pace,'' Chignell said.
"I feel like I'm running the best that I ever have. I'm doing a lot more speed work looking towards the 1500m. I think that's lengthened by stride a bit more.''
Like Ashton, Chignell will study physical education at the University of Otago next year, but is hoping to pick up an athletics scholarship to the United States this time next year.
Spence came up short of defending her senior girls 300m hurdles title, but did win silver behind Anna Percy, of St Margaret's College, in 44.48sec.
She was also "stoked'' to add a gold medal to her collection by teaming up with fellow Columba College pupils Ellie Duncan, Ruby Coers and Lily Cunningham in the senior girls 4x400m relay.
Their winning time of 3min 58.69sec was just 0.28sec outside the national secondary schools record, set by Howick College in 2009.
Spence, Duncan, Coers and Cunningham also won bronze in the senior girls 4x100m relay.
She is set to study International business and Chinese at either the University of Otago or the University of Auckland next year.
Spence expects to make her decision by January, but is leaning towards Auckland with an eye on qualifying for the 400m hurdles in next year's world junior athletics championships.
More than 1300 pupils from across the country took part in the secondary schools championships.
Otago medallists
Gold: Christina Ashton (Queen's), senior girls 100m hurdles; Felix McDonald (King's), senior boys long jump, Oli Chignell (John McGlashan), senior boys 6km road race; Josiah Lesa (King's), junior boys 100m hurdles; Columba College's senior girls 4x400m relay team (Ellie Duncan, Ruby Coers, Lily Cunningham, Maddy Spence); King's High School's 4x100m relay team (Jacob Granger, Rory O'Neill, Felix McDonald, Ben Kiore), King's High School's 4x400m relay team (Granger, O'Neill, McDonald, Kiore);
Silver: Felix McDonald (King's), senior boys 110m hurdles open 300m hurdles; Samantha Burke (Mt Aspiring), senior girls 3000m; Maddy Spence (Columba), senior girls 300m hurdles; Rory O'Neill (King's), senior boys 200m; Sam Gouverneur (King's), junior boys 400m; Adrianna Mawhinney (Dunstan), senior girls triple jump; Hamish Mears (Taieri), junior boys discus; St Hilda's 4x100m relay team (Danica Davies, Joccoaa Palmer, Leonie Palmer, Caitlyn George);
Bronze: Bob Martin (East Otago), junior boys javelin; Nathan Hill (Otago Boys'), junior boys 1500m; Alex Brown (King's), open 3000m walk; Columba College's senior girls 4x100m relay team (Ellie Duncan, Ruby Coers, Lily Cunningham, Maddy Spence).
