These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
Logan Park High School
Anna Walrond (14), one of the top sailors in her age-group in New Zealand, is sailing in Bermuda in the America's Cup Endeavour open event. The event is held in conjunction with the finals of the main event. Anna has also been selected as part of a small group receiving coaching from Sir Russell Coutts.
He is also an ex-Ravensbourne Club member and supports up-and-coming sailors. Coutts has been coaching a group including Anna and they send videos every two weeks via Facebook messenger. He responds with specific feedback and also has Skype sessions with the group every second Sunday. Coutts has also given them personalised six-day-a-week physical training programmes.
The school held its cross-country last week with a large field of competitors. First place results were: girls under-14, Rebecca Dalphin; under-15, Mae Rose Wills; under-16, Annie Kennedy Atchison; boys under-14, Harry Major; under-15, Daniel Cowles; under-16, Joe McKee; open champion, Hamish McKinlay.
In the Otago cross-country this month, Dalphin was second in the under-14 girls race and Joseph McKee fourth in the under-16 boys race.
Jorja Hutton will represent Otago at the national badminton championships in July in the under-15A team. Cathy Zeng is also an Otago representative player.
Zoe Degas and Laura Graham are in the Otago under-19 handball training squad and will compete in the South Island Tournament in Christchurch in the first week of July.
The junior and senior A netball teams competed at the OSS championships in June. Both teams benefited from the stiff competition improving their skills.
King's High School
The 16-member cross-country team travelled to Christchurch to compete in the NZSS cross-country championships. Drew Cairney finished in 14th place in the senior boys 6km individual race out of 205 competitors. George Bates, in the junior boys 4000m, finished a very creditable 12th out of 145 competitors on limited preparation due to injury.
The senior three-man team of Cairney, Zach Mason and Malachi Buschl finished in eighth place overall.The senior six-man team of Cairney, Mason, Buschl, Finn Ward, Daniel Dickie and Matthew McCutcheon also finished in sixth place overall.
Sho Tokuoka recently travelled to Christchurch to compete in the Canterbury Open Judo Champs. Sho competed in the under-100kg category and the open men's category. He won the 100kg category, and was placed third in the open men's.
Well done to Tame Govaerts-Pauls, who has been selected into the Swimming NZ national development squad.
The school recently hosted Shirley Boys' High for their annual exchange and had victories in the U14 rugby,1st XV and junior football for a 3-2 overall victory.
Surfer Ruben Peyroux is the overall under-17 champion of the South Island Surfing Association season, and was second overall in the under-20 section.
Olly McCombie represented Otago under-19 at the national basketball championships in Auckland over Queen's Birthday weekend.
John McGlashan College
Mathew Godfrey is ranked in the top four under-15 badminton players in the South Island. He won 15 of his 18 games at tournament and helped his team to second place. The JMC trapshooting team of Archie Calder, Eli Darling, Alex Dodson, George Lowery and Will Morshuis won the Jenkinson Cup at the Southland Clay Target Club Intercollegiate.
Thirteen boys made Otago age-group basketball teams. Max Gomez, Nathan Scott and Josh Stoddard made the Otago under-19 team. Alex Byars, Will Edwards, Josh Hope, Jacob Johnson, Dom Morrison and Hamish Robinson were selected in the under-17 side. The under-15 side includes Sam Hope, Josh Hou, Anton Stoddard and Oscar Sycamore.
The cross-country season is drawing to an end and junior Josh Hou has made every post a winning one. He won every race in the OSS series, including the Otago championship. Josh combined with Nathan Harrison, Dom Morrison and Will Turner to win the junior Otago-Southland relay. Dom Morrison stepped aside for Ben Lund when the team attended the national cross-country championship in Christchurch on June 17.
Thirty-two Summer Blues were awarded recently across 14 different codes. Rowing deservedly picked up seven after an exceptional season.
Otago Girls' High School
The junior cross-country team won the Otago-Southland Milton cross-country race with the team of Caitlin O'Donnell, Jess Tyrrell, Becky de la Harpe and Rebekah Hill. At the Otago Secondary Schools' cross-country championships Rebekah Hill won the under-15 girls section and Elsa Neuman was second in the under-16 girls section. In the teams category, the Otago Girls' under-14 team was second and the under-15 team first.
At the Otago-Southland surf life-saving awards of excellence, Carina Donegan received third place in the under-19 women's top competitors at the Otago championships. At the same awards, Charlotte Underwood-Nicol was named top overall under-14 female for the Otago/Southland region.
Molly McCall has been named in the Dunedin Netball Centre under 17A team and Hannah Sims in the under 17B team.
The following pupils made the Football South Futsal representative teams: under-15 girls: Lauren Paterson, Jasmine Roberts, Ailie Muldrew, and Rebecca Dean. Under-19 girls: Jade Middleditch and Sophie Dijkstra.
Tyla Adams recently played in the under-15 Southland badminton tournament and was first in singles, second in doubles and first in mixed. Sarah Ford took fourth place overall at the Rolling Plains Mini Cycling Tour in Ashburton. Renee Perenara was second in the Taekwondo New Zealand Open competition.
The 9A, 10A and senior A netball teams competed in the OSS netball tournament. The 9As and 10As were both fifth.
Taieri College
Taieri College has had a very busy couple of weeks on the sporting field. Kaylee Bezett, Jinaya Hancock and Tayla Cramond were all selected to play for the Otago volleyball under-20 and under-17 teams that attended the nationals.
Taieri travelled to South Otago for the winter interchange to compete in rugby, netball and football and theatresports. Hockey was played in Dunedin, at the turf.
Taieri had good wins in the colts rugby, football and junior and senior B netball. Congratulations to Rachel Beattie for being selected in the Dunedin Netball Centre under-17A netball team and Emma Cramond and Hollie Kooman for selection in the under-17B team.
This past weekend, the senior A, 10A and 9A netball teams competed in the Otago netball championships. All teams had three wins on the first day to make the top eight. The year 9A team was second overall at the first OSS tournament.
The senior A team finished fourth and the year 10 team sixth. Danya Kerr also had a good tournament with her umpiring duties and ended up umpiring the final.
Cross-country runners Gabby Kakahi, Mackenzie Miller, Cameron O'Connell and Laura Bungard all competed at the New Zealand Secondary School Cross-Country Championships in Christchurch last weekend. All four runners stayed on to run for Otago in the relay races.
St Hilda's Collegiate School
A big day for St Hilda's at the recent OSS netball champs, with all three teams making the final of the respective divisions. The senior As put in a dominant performance with a 40-18 win over Columba College.
The year 9A team won 26-15 against Taieri. The 10A team was second.
The junior futsal team placed second in the Otago futsal champs this term. Kate Higham and Georgia Mitchell have selected in the under-19 girls Football South futsal rep team.
The senior 1 cross-country relay team carried on its great form for another first place finish, this time at the Otago-Southland cross-country relay champs in Milton.
Georgia Mitchell took second place and Suzie White was third at the Otago Secondary School Cross-Country Championships. Annabel Bilkey, Riley MacDonald, Sophie Sinclair and April Dobbie also ran very well.
The senior A sevens team finished second in the senior A grade of the OSS sevens competition. The senior B team also had a great finish to the season by winning the senior B grade.
In rowing, the novice double sculls duo of Sophie Sinclair and Olivia Whelan-Henderson were recently named the novice crew of the year at the Otago rowing awards
Roxburgh Area School
A Roxburgh Area School A team and a junior year 9 and 10 team travelled to Dunedin to compete in the OSS netball tournament last week. The A team won against Logan Park High School, Bayfield High School, East Otago High School and Queen's High School to be in the final against Tokomairiro HIgh School.
This was a repeat of last year's final and again it was a tight game, with Tokomairiro winning. The junior team had some tough games as they were playing against year 10 teams as a combined year 9 and 10 team. However, the team showed tenacity.
The senior basketball team is competing in the Lawrence social grade on a Friday evening in Lawrence. The team has played two games so far and has had two big wins, 50-16 and 58-18 last week. Some of these players as well as other year 9 and 10 players will be heading to Queenstown at the end of term to play in the Central Otago tournament.
A group of pupils as part of their class work are running an interhouse competition in volleyball and basketball and the next round is in dodgeball. This is proving to be very popular on the cold lunch times, as the NZAS team is busy fundraising to get to Whangarei in the July holidays.
Dunstan High School
Dunstan's senior A netball team along with 9A and 10A recently competed in the Otago Secondary Schools Netball Championships, finishing in seventh, ninth and eighth place respectively. It was a good opportunity for the As to experience tournament play before the South Island Championships later in the year.
The school's girls rugby team has been competing regularly throughout the term with mixed results. However, the team has been playing some entertaining rugby with a good mix of experienced and new players along with a new and enthusiastic coaching and management team.
The first XV got off to a slow start with some tough games but have shown good character and have picked up a few wins. In addition, there have been some good results from teams in other grades.
The school's basketball and hockey teams continue to compete in competitions and the football teams are starting to develop for tournaments later in the year.
Many of the school's senior teams will compete n the annual sports exchange with Central Southland College. Dunstan will be looking to win back the interschool trophy after relinquishing it to Central Southland College last year.
Maniototo Area School
On May 17-19, a group of 30 pupils from year 10-13 travelled down to Owaka in the Catlins to attend an extremely well organised Southern Area Schools Tournament.
Overall, Maniototo performed very well coming first in rugby (three years in a row), second in netball, first in boys' basketball, third in girls' basketball, first in boys' touch, third in girls' touch, first in indoor bowls, first in table tennis, first in squash, first in indoor hockey, first in petanque, second in golf, third in mixed football, fifth in rogaine, and fifth and seventh in the quiz.
At the end of the three days, a national tournament team was selected to travel to Whangarei in July. The 10 pupils selected from Maniototo were: Kyle Cairns, Candy Ferdinands, Anton Hood, Keagan Mulholland, Matthew Neilson, Ben Smith, Ayeasha Tapatu, Lakita Taylor, Damian Carson, and Doug Smith. Every student showed P.R.I.D.E in the school and in each sport showed extreme determination not to give up until the final whistle was blown.
Recently, a team of five Maniototo pupils, Eligh Spooner, Tyla Spooner, Amanda Voice, Ben Voice and Anna Clarke, travelled to Dunedin to the Otago secondary schools cross-country competition. Anna was placed 10th and Amanda 11th in the under-15 girls category. The rest of the team was placed within the top 30 competitors.
