The week in secondary sports


Wrestling: Pupils from Taieri College competed in the national wrestling championships held in Mosgiel recently.

Athletes from the college who gained medals were: Macayla Moore, first 12-13 years freestyle female 57-62kg; Ricky Welsford, first junior freestyle male, junior Greco-Roman, senior freestyle male, 60kg; Ryo Yamada, second junior freestyle male, first junior Greco-Roman, third senior freestyle male, 66kg, first junior Greco-Roman, 74kg; Joshua Pendreigh, second junior Greco-Roman, 84kg; Craig Welsford, first 14-16 years freestyle male, 50kg.

Cycling: The South Island secondary school road cycling championship were held at the Ruapuna Raceway in Christchurch over the holidays.

Results from the first day were: Under-15 girls time trial, Amy Pearce 1, Alysha Keith 2; under-16 girls time trial, Sharna Seaton 3; under-16 boys time trial, Patrick Jones 1; under-17 girls time trial, Charlotte Kelly 3.

Within 10 minutes of the racing being finished the course was covered in 2cm of snow.

The conditions deteriorated and were described as diabolical by the race co-ordinator, who made the call to cancel the team's race event to ensure the health and safety of the riders.

Conditions improved for the second day of racing with the riders having to deal with a bitterly cold wind for the road races.

Once again the Taieri College riders were to the fore.

Results were: Under-15 girls, Amy Pearce 1, Alysha Keith 2, Julia Gorinski 4; under-16 boys, Patrick Jones 1, Regan King 3; under-17 girls, Charlotte Kelly 2.

This left Taieri College with 10 medals for the meeting and second place overall behind Villa Maria College.

On the same weekend, Brad Evans represented New Zealand in the under-17 section of the Tour of Canberra.

He was involved in a crash in the first stage of the race.

While Brad continued with injuries this greatly affected his overall placing.

Hockey: Otago Boys High School and St Hildas are the dominant schools in hockey 2008 and much of our representative talent currently comes from those schools.

Nick Ross, Blair Tarrant and Hugo Inglis, all of OBHS, have just been named in the Junior Black Sticks team.

This is a fantastic achievement and a first for Otago.

Kane Russell also has huge potential, having represented New Zealand at under-16 level, while Nick Elder is another from OBHS to watch in years to come.

It is anticipated that the OBHS 1st XI will compete strongly at the Rankin Cup in Napier, the top national secondary school tournament.

Cal Freeman, who attends school in Central Otago, but travels to Dunedin to further his game, plays for Kings High School under Dave Ross and is another player with potential.

Dave has also trained and coached the Junior Black Stick boys since their primary school days.

Monique Wilson, from St Hildas, is in the Southern National League squad for the second year and has already played for the under-18s and under-21s in 2008.

Kate Kernaghan, Emma Spratt and Lou Harvey, also from St Hilda's, are all emerging under-16 representative players and have recently been named in the NHL train-on squad.

Sam Dungey, Otago Girls High School, has risen through the ranks to be selected in the NHL squad after performing well at age group level.

At the recent under-18 national representative tournaments, our teams, primarily made up of Otago secondary school pupils, performed well.

The boys were runners-up to North Harbour after beating Canterbury and Auckland along the way, while the girls came a credible seventh.

Colin Donald, the outgoing principal of Kings High School, displayed a great enthusiasm for all sports during his seven years at the school.

Originally from Gore, Donald displayed talent at most sports at Gore High School before achieving a degree in physical education at the University of Otago, and then a degree in education at the University of Hobart.

While in Dunedin he played senior rugby for University A and Southern but maintained his interest in all sports.

He taught at Shirley Boys High School and Hillmorton and had five years as deputy principal at Christchurch Boys High School before joining Kings.

He quickly became involved in the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association, becoming its chairman, and this commitment to the OSSSA was reflected in his attendance at all day sports co-ordinator meetings in Roxburgh, offering invaluable support for all schools in Otago.

He was responsible for the resurrection of rowing at Kings and was also instrumental in instigating wider competition in the major interschool event with Otago Boys.

Twenty-six teams at various levels compete against each other in a wide variety of sports.

Ice Hockey: The weekly ice hockey competition continues to run smoothly with 14 teams competing on Wednesday evenings.

The A Section has been reduced to four teams for the final round leading up to the semifinals and final.

Otago Boys and Kings are the leading contenders.

Section B is also being keenly contested with the young Balmacewen Intermediate team showing real promise, while Taieri College has been promoted to Section B following good wins in Section C.

The progression from half to full ice for Section C teams St Hildas, Otago Girls and Queens has been a real challenge for the players but one they are enjoying.

The competition is scheduled to finish on August 27.

The South Island secondary schools ice hockey tournament will be held from September 1 to 4 at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.

This is the fourth consecutive year the tournament has been held in Dunedin.

Teams from Otago include Kings, Otago Boys, John McGlashan and Dunstan/Cromwell, while Wakatipu and Gore/St Peters have entered from Southland.

A strong contingent from Christchurch will make up the 10-team competition.

These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn Inc (OSSSA) 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.

 

Add a Comment