The week in secondary school sport

Country coaching visits

The term four country coaching visits are now completed with pupils from all 11 country schools benefiting from specialist coaching in a variety of sports - tennis, cricket, golf, athletics and touch. The regional sporting organisations, together with Sport Otago, continue to give great support to this programme.

Road race

The annual road race around the Logan Park circuit was held on Wednesday.

Forty-two athletes from Dunedin schools competed in cool but fine conditions.

The junior girls, senior girls and junior boys completed a 2.5km circuit, while the senior boys ran two laps, giving a distance of 5km.

Results. - Junior girls: Anna-Lisa Uttley (Bayfield) 8min 55.09sec, 1; Bella Bloomfield (Otago Girls) 9min 25.06sec, 2; Shauna Pali (Kavanagh) 9min 26.91sec, 3.

Senior girls: Olivia Robb (Queens) 9min 28.85sec, 1; Charlotte O'Leary (Columba) 10min 37.67sec, 2; Casey Broad (Logan Park) 11min 2.56sec, 3.

Junior boys: Cameron McNoe (Kaikorai Valley) 8min 4.10sec, 1; Toby Batchelor (John McGlashan) 8min 12.04sec, 2; Michael Ogle (Otago Boys) 8min 18.73sec, 3.

Senior boys: Bryce Morgan (Otago Boys) 15min 2.73sec, 1; Campbell Garry (John McGlashan) 15min 4.47sec, 2; Daniel Balchin (Kings) 15min 10.11sec, 3.

Water polo

Four weeks of the term-four competition have been held, with games played across two sections on Fridays at Moana Pool.

In the junior section, Kavanagh has three wins and a record of 36 goals scored and five conceded.

Columba, John McGlashan, Otago Girls, Otago Boys and Bayfield are next.

St Hildas leads the senior section, with the two Columba teams snapping at its heels.

Final games will be played on December 5.

Touch

The local competition is being played at Bishopscourt on Tuesdays.

Thirty-one teams are playing across several junior and senior sections.

Otago Girls leads the junior A girls and senior girls sections, with Kavanagh, Columba, Queens and St Hildas also performing well.

Kaikorai Valley, Otago Boys and Kings are the best of the boys teams in both junior and senior sections.

This competition ends on December 2.

Motocross

Courtney Duncan (East Otago High School) recently competed in the International MX in Taupo, New Zealand's biggest event, which attracted more than 400 riders.

Courtney, riding an 85cc bike, finished second in the senior women's race behind two-time world champion Katherine Prumm, who rode a 250cc bike.

After qualifying second out of 74 junior riders in the 12-15 years 85cc class, Courtney had a bad crash and was unable to finish the event.

Rugby

The Otago secondary schoolgirls team had a successful season.

At the South Island tournament in Alexandra it beat first the Hannan Shields team, 36-10, then Southland, 58-5, to reach the final.

A focused and determined Otago scored a convincing win against Canterbury, 36-nil, to retain its title.

Tries were scored by Greer Muir (2), Natahlia Cochrane-Darling, Brittany Haugh, Rachel Ovens and Sheree Hume.

Victoria Nafatali kicked three conversions.

Four players were named in the Otago Spirit team: Victoria Nafatali, Jaime Green, Rachel Ovens and Brittany Haugh, with Nafatali securing a starting spot in the Spirit backline during the season.

Tournament team players were: Hannah Cooper, Brittany McKinnel, Brittany Haugh, Leyhana Van Vaught, Natalia McCaw, Rachel Ovens, Victoria Nafatali and Sheree Hume.

Get To Go Challenge

Logan Park High School was the No 1 team from the Dunedin schools which competed in the National Get to Go Challenge at Montecillo Park.

Its first event was a complex course that involved an hour-long biking relay through a muddy paddock, and through a number of obstacles.

The next was at Macandrew Bay where guides showed pupils how to use a double kayak safely.

They then had to compete against the other schools by kayaking out to the wharf, through buoys, and back to shore while tagging their team-mates.

The last event involved pupils going to Ross Creek where they raced in teams against other schools to get as many orienteering tags as possible.

Logan Park split up their team to cover more ground.

This tactic clearly worked as they finished the overall winners.

Ice hockey

John McGlashan captain James Brinsdon had a hugely successful season.

An MVP award at the South Island schools tournament helped in his selection in the Southern Under-16 team that won the national title, and in the New Zealand Under-16 team which won all four of its games in Sydney in the holidays.

He was also top scorer for his school in the local weekly schools competition.

Sports award

The Kings High School representatives' supper was held last week.

The Salter Trophy, recognising sporting excellence in year 13, was won by Rhys Applegarth, who is a leading representative in swimming, water polo and surf life-saving.

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