The South Island secondary schools ice hockey tournament was played over four days during tournament week at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.

A total of 10 teams from different areas in the South Island attended the event, the same number of teams as in 2007.

Teams were seeded into two pools of five, with each team playing the other four in their pool.

It was expected that St Andrews College from Christchurch, Wakatipu High School from Queenstown and Christchurch Boys High School would be the strongest teams at the tournament and that proved to be the case.

In the semifinals, St Andrews defeated Lincoln HS 10-1, while Wakatipu beat Christchurch Boys 7-3.

Wakatipu played well as a team throughout the tournament and proved too strong for St Andrews in the final, winning 2-0, reversing last year's result.

The final placings were: Wakatipu HS 1, St Andrews College 2, Christchurch Boys HS 3, Lincoln HS 4, Gore/St Peters 5, Kings HS 6, Dunstan/Cromwell 7, Otago Boys HS 8, Burnside/Shirley HS 9, John McGlashan 10.

Most valuable player awards: defence, Dale Bailey (Dunstan/Cromwell); forward, James Brinston (John McGlashan); goalie, Lincoln Hill (St Andrews).

Top scorer: Chris Eaden (St Andrews).

Regan Wilson (15), the Kings captain and a four-year veteran who plays left defence, has been selected for both the New Zealand Under-16 team to go to Australia in October and the New Zealand Under-18 team to play in the world championships in Taipei in February-March next year.

He is joined on the Taipei trip by team-mate Harrison King (17) and Tom Wilson (15), from Otago Boys.

James Brinsdon (John McGlashan) was also selected in the Under-16 team.

Cycling

Sophie Williamson competed in the New Zealand secondary schools individual championships at Mt Wellington in Auckland from September 12-14.

This event consists of a three-part competition decided on overall points.

In her category of Under-15 girls, she was first in the 4km time trial and the steep 1km hill climb, and second in the points race criterium, resulting in an overall victory for this age group.

There were 460 competitors, with very few South Island entries.

Sophie follows in the footsteps of her brothers, James and Patrick, who have each won age group titles at the event and is the latest in a long list of talented riders from Dunstan High School to compete for top honours in the event over the last five years.

Her next big event is the New Zealand secondary schools championships in Levin this week where a seven-strong team from Dunstan will travel to compete.

This event consists of a team time trial, where the senior boys team will be aiming to improve on their subsequent two fifth placings, age group scratch races and a points race all as separate events.

In addition, Sophie will compete in the tough four-stage Manawatu novice tour which has a 40-year history with many prestigious names in cycling on its list of past winners.

She will be joined by fellow pupils and New Zealand cycling representatives Kate McDonald and Georgia Wight, also from Dunstan High School.

Basketball

The Dunstan A team emerged the winner of the secondary schools region 4A boys tournament held in Timaru.

With two full games and duty each day, the boys had huge days and in the end, stamina and grit saw them through to win by one basket in the final 0.6sec.

The final was against Buller High, last year's winner, which Dunstan had beaten in pool play by two points, also in the final seconds.

The boys went through undefeated, beating Cromwell, Fiordland, Logan Park, Mairehau and Buller.

The win was only possible through having depth in the squad.

All the games were competitive and being able to replace tired legs with equal skills gave the team the edge.

Results: Beat Cromwell 106-55, beat Fiordland 63-22, beat Buller 67-65, beat Logan Park 69-63, beat Mairehau 88-55.

Final: beat Buller 57-55.

Bowls

On Wednesday afternoons at the Westpac Stadium, pupils from some secondary schools in Otago are playing lawn bowls.

This event has been organised by special request from the pupils who attended the summer league held at the Andersons Bay Bowling Club during February and March.

The Andersons Bay club has been proactive in promoting secondary school bowls.

A committee for youth bowls was set up and it was decided to link a school to a club for the clubs to mentor and coach the students.

A special thanks to all the clubs who gave up their time and expertise so willingly.

This has been very successful as five new schools have become involved, with one school indicating that bowls may become an option for NCEA qualification.

The winner of the winter interschool tournament was Kavanagh College, with Otago Boys the runner up.

It is hoped some of the young bowlers will join clubs and continue to improve on the natural talent that they have.

Recently, a regional tournament was held in Gore, with a team of six boys and six girls playing for a place in the regional team.

The standard was extremely high and six girls from Otago will now represent their schools at the national secondary school bowls finals which are being held from December 11-13.

They are: Girls singles, Sarah Davidson (Roxburgh Area), Lanah Craik (Waitaki Girls); girls pairs, Claudia Heron and Nadine Lawson (St Hildas), Kate Willyams and Olivia Smith (Dunstan).

The Dunstan pair finished second overall.

 

• These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn Inc, which is proudly sponsored by the University of Otago College of Education.

Contacts: Des Smith, Otago Regional Sports Director, PO Box 6303, Dunedin.

Ph 470 1337 Fax 470 1786 Email: des@osssa.org.nz Website: www.osssa.org.nz