Tokomairiro High School
Millar McElrea finished the athletics season on a high at the interprovincial grade 12-13 meet at Christchurch over Easter.
He was named team captain for the Otago team of 35-plus athletes and also placed third overall on points for the 13-year-old boys for the entire meet.
He placed first in the 13 boys high jump, recording 1.75m, breaking the Otago record in doing so. This adds to his Otago long jump record of 5.82m he secured earlier in the season. He placed fourth in the long jump and seventh in both the 400m and 800m.
The school held the annual cross-country on May 1 with the following champions named: minor girls: Sophie Restall, minor boys: Brendon Greer; juniors girls: Sarah Edwards, boys: Wyatt Mallon; intermediate girls: Jenna Griffin, boys: Millar McElrea (fastest overall time 10min 40sec); seniors girls: Tarryn Roxburgh (fastest girls' time 12min 56sec), boys: Jared Hayes.
Queen's High School
The school is excited to be working with the Otago Polytechnic Institute of Sport and Adventure to run an athlete development programme for junior pupils. The pupils will spend time developing a holistic understanding of what it takes to excel as an athlete.
The programme will include nutrition, sport psychology, specialist skill training, building resilience, wellbeing and leadership.
The Canterbury women's surfing championships were held at New Brighton beach last month.
Anika Ayson was first in the under-16 and third in the under-20 divisions. Jaya Reardon was third in the under-16 division.
The South Island championships were in Dunedin at Easter. Anika placed second in the under-16 division.
Aliyah Christos and Brianna Reid represented New Zealand in the under-18 ice hockey team in Abu Dhabi over the holidays. They played in the senior women's international tournament, and the team placed fourth overall in the tournament, narrowly missing out on a silver medal in its last game.
The annual house cross-country/fun run was held on April 11. Neve Darlington won year nine, Billie Allan year 10 and Scarlett Rogers the senior title. The cross-country team is selected from this event and 15 runners competed in the Logan Park road race last week.
Otago Boys' High School
It has been a successful transition from summer sports to winter codes. All teams are now in full swing and playing competitively and socially and it is looking as if there has been an increase in participation numbers for winter sports with more teams in rugby, hockey, football and basketball, which is great news.
The options available now to boys to play sport are increasing and this is shown in what used to be termed minor sports. A great example of this is mountain biking, in which more than 35 boys have registered.
The challenge now is to provide quality programmes for these boys to have a positive experience along with making sure there are skilled coaches to lead these programmes.
With term 2 under way, the school is looking forward to the traditional interschools of which there are six. This year the school is hosting four of these. The programme is: King's High School, May 14, Dunedin; Southland Boys' High School, May 22, Invercargill; Christ's College, June 11, Christchurch; Timaru Boys' High School, June 19, Dunedin; Christchurch Boys' High School, July 2, Dunedin; Waitaki Boys' High School, July 25, Dunedin.
Mount Aspiring College
The Otago Schools orienteering champs were held recently and Liam Williamson gained third place in the year 9-10 boys championship grade.
Two teams travelled to Ashburton to compete in the Lower South Island Secondary Schools teams sailing regatta. Team one was awarded the Southern District Secondary Schools 420s teams racing trophy for winning its races against the Lower South Island Schools, Timaru and Otago Girls.
Year 11 pupil Luca Harrington, gained international skiing success at the US National championships. He competed in the open men's division, placing fourth in halfpipe and sixth in slopestyle.
Water-skier Meg Harraway finished fourth in slalom at the junior International Invitational Masters in Melbourne. She placed second in the under-21 girls, both in slalom and jump at the Australia-New Zealand champs, and first overall in the under-17 girls at the Canterbury champs. Meg also competed recently in the 2019 New Zealand national championships in Auckland, where she placed first in the under-17 girls slalom, second in the under-17 girls jump, and overall, and third in the open women slalom.
Ben Silipo (14) attended the national age-groups swimming championships in Wellington in April. He achieved some amazing results, winning a bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle, and silver medals in the 200m butterfly, 200m individual medley, and in the 400m individual medley. He also set an Otago record in the 400m individual medley, which qualifies him for the New Zealand 2019 high performance targeted athlete programme.
Kavanagh College
In the last week of term 1 the Southern Catholic Schools sports tournament was held in Oamaru, involving Roncalli College, Verdon College, St Kevin's College, St Peter's College and Kavanagh College. The sports played were basketball, netball, hockey, rugby and football. Kavanagh College finished third overall, winning the girls football and girls basketball overall. This tournament seems to get better every year and is one which the students really look forward to.
Last week the school held its annual cross-country at Kettle Park, in perfect conditions. It was great to see pupils out in the fresh air getting some good exercise, and some really great running was on display.
This event leads into the cross-country series run by Otago Secondary Schools Sport, which started with the Logan Park individual road race, also run in perfect conditions. Kavanagh had four runners in the senior boys and girls race and they all ran well and gave it their all.
Winter sport is now running and the hockey teams and girls rugby teams have had some good results to start the season. It is also great to see the Combined Co-ed First XV compete very well in its first hit out of the season and congratulations to all involved in making this team happen.
Blue Mountain College
Once again, another busy term with winter sports starting up. This season the school has seven netball teams entered in the Eastern Southland competition.
It's great to see the A netball team entered in the top section again.
Congratulations to Laura Weller, Olivia Reihana and Cheyanne Candy, who have been named in the Eastern under-17 netball squad.
Over the holidays, year 12 pupil Paige McIvor attended the Te Waipounamu Maori under-18 girl's rugby camp in Christchurch. This is the second time Paige has been to this camp, from which she gains some excellent fitness and rugby skills that can be passed on.
John Steele was selected in the NZ wrestling development team which travelled to Indiana in the holidays. He came away with two wins from six matches, a huge achievement for some tough competition.
Blue Mountain has entered a team in the canoe polo competition at Splash Palace, in Invercargill. The team of Riley Hill, Amiee Nicol, Sarah Harris, Olivia Hughes and Matty-Jay Conway-Steel are all new to the sport and the team has already come away with its first win.
Bayfield High School
Eva Hofmans is one of two Dunedin pupils to be selected in to the Rowing NZ junior team. In August, Eva is off to Tokyo to compete in the junior world championships in the women's quadruple sculls.
Futsal ended very well in term one. Both the senior girls team and senior boys team finished the season as division one champions.
Mya Miller, Shevaun Chettleburgh and Claudia Tate have all gained selection in to the Otago girls under-19 volleyball team. Ben Caton was successful in making the Otago boys under-17 volleyball team. All will be off to Wellington to compete in the interprovincial championships.
Three table tennis players travelled to Invercargill to compete in the Southern Shield clash. Isaac Hobbs, Ruby Anderson, Alex Clarkson and team-mates, were victorious, winning the event 57-31.
Bayfield has a very busy term ahead, with a sports exchange to Mountainview High School, the Co-Ed Cup and hosting an overnight sports exchange with Cromwell College.
