Taieri College athletes shine at athletics championships

These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.

Taieri College

THE school performed exceptionally well at the SISS athletics championships, finishing with many top results and personalbests. These were highlighted by Zharna Beattie (first under19 girls discus and second under19 shot put), Neve Beattie (third under14 long jump), Shyah Beattie (first under15 shot put, first under15 discus, second under15 triple jump, third under15 long jump), Tara McNally (first under19 100m hurdles, first under19 300m hurdles), Ethan Walker (first under19 boys javelin). Zharna Beattie and Ben Baines went to the Australia track and field championships in Sydney. Ben was second in the javelin and claimed the silver commemorative medal. Ethan Walker and Zharna Beattie will travel to Townsville in June to represent New Zealand at the Oceania area and combined events championships.

Summer sports are wrapping up at the moment with the senior A volleyball team finishing third in the Dunedin competition.

In the OSSSA touch competition, the senior mixed team was third in the senior A grade. The year 9 and 10 boys’ team won. The softball team won the OSS champs played in term 4 last year and term 1 this year.

On the futsal front, both the year 10 blue and senior blue teams won their finals on Thursday night.

In water polo, the junior team is playing off in the finals, while the senior team is playing off for third and fourth.

Roxburgh Area School

THE last few weeks have been busy training for the Area School Tournament in Ranfurly next term. It covers netball, basketball, touch, badminton, football, hockey, volleyball, rugby and ki o rahi.

Caleb Kitto, Keiran Marsh, and Ben Robb have been selected for the Central Otago basketball teams and played in an OtagoSouthland tournament in Dunedin in the weekend.

Six pupils attended the OSSSA sport coaching day in Cromwell two weeks ago. They gained valuable knowledge in how to know your athlete, planning a training session, handling concussion and warmup activities. They then had a practical session in netball and will be able to put their knowledge into practice next term when coaching their teams.

Winter sports teams are under way. Several pupils are playing rugby with Dunstan High School teams and some of the senior boys are playing in the Roxburgh senior men’s Roxburgh team.

Netball teams have been selected and will start with a preseason tournament on the last Saturday of the holidays. The competition starts in week one of term 2. Basketball will be played in Lawrence in term 2.

Otago Girls’ High School

SEVERAL teams have travelled out of Dunedin for summer sports week. The senior A and B volleyball teams attended the national championships in Palmerston North, rowers took part in the Maadi Cup at Lake Karapiro, the senior A water polo team competed at the SISS tournament in Christchurch and a strong team of athletes competed at the SISS athletics championships held in Nelson.

Molly Newall has been named in the New Zealand under15 table tennis team to compete in Australia, Charlotte UnderwoodNicol won a silver medal at the 2019 senior surf lifesaving nationals in the under16 diamond race and Petra McNuttMilne, a member of the Magpies AFL team, was named one of the best players of the tournament at the recent New Zealand women’s premiership.

The orienteering team won the Dunedin schools series, Sam Bixley finishing first in the Otago schools championships. Sarah Dixon finished third in the individual and second in the team event at the recent horse of the year competition in Hastings.

Emma McKay has been named as a member of the New Zealand athletics team to travel to Australia to compete in the 2019 Oceania Area Championships.

Logan Park High School

EIGHT pupils qualified to attend the SISS athletics championships in Nelson at the end of March. Nirvana HepiBreen was a standout, winning all three of her throwing events — hammer, discus and shot put. Zack Hibbert also performed well to finish first in the hammer. Viviane Dalphin ran very well to place second in her 3000m and Nico Alvarez ReyVirag was second in his 400m and third in the 800m.

Volleyball, futsal and sailing teams competed in the secondary schools tournaments in March. The sailing team was very successful in the Sunburst regatta. Anna Walrond and Miriam Barton won best girls crew. Zoe Barton and Pepa Cloughley came third and James Hurley and Owen Bettis claimed a third in their division. The team was second in school overall results and second in the teams racing cup win, the crew included Linus Molteno and Ben Kunath.

Daniel Cowles was awarded the prestigious Otago under18 sportsmanship award at the Otago Softball Association senior awards evening.

As the summer season ends, the school is in winter sport preparation mode.

The girls First XI football team has moved up to the first division and looks forward to the challenge.

At an OSSSA leadership workshop in March, sports head prefects Annie KennedyAtchison and Ziggi KaitaiMartin were invited to speak on our innovative lunchtime interhouse sports activities.

Victoria Fisk competed in the national marching champs in Christchurch in March. Her team came second in New Zealand in the under16 grade.

John McGlashan College

THE highlight of the Maadi Cup rowing regatta was the gold medal achieved by Jack Pearson and Mark Smith in the under15 double. The school also had five crews qualify for A finals.

The senior water polo team came third in the recent SISS competition. Tim Chirnside made the tournament team.

Tennis player Max Gaffney recently won the Otago Junior Open Championships.

Cricketers Tom Dempster and Harrison Briggs won awards for Otago under17 cricket.

Callum White won the Otago under17 golf champs.

There have been numerous successes in surf lifesaving, mountain biking and triathlon.

Liam Wilson has been named in the New Zealand team for the Oceania Area Championships.

Many placings were claimed at the OSS athletics championships.

At the South Island championships, Shay Veitch won the triple jump and was third in the long jump, Archie Calder was second in the javelin and Ruaidhri Brosnan third in the 800m. The team secured silver in the under16 400m relay, and bronze in the under19 400m relay.

The First XV has returned from the tour to Dubai and South Africa with a good victory and a couple of close losses. A real highlight for the boys was getting out among the South African communities, which has made them really appreciate how lucky we are.

East Otago High School

PUPILS are looking forward to a break over the next couple of weeks after an extremely busy term of sporting competitions. Three senior volleyball teams, a senior and a junior touch team and a boys handball team competed this term, the junior touch team finishing second in its competition.

Kari Croucher recently competed at the New Zealand division 2 championships in Dunedin. She had four top10 finishes from nine events and numerous personalbests.

Kayle and Jordyne Harris have been busy in the water again, competing at the New Zealand IRB Championships. Kayle was fourth in under19 men’s singles, fourth in the tube rescue and fourth in the mass rescue. Jordyne won a bronze in the open women’s team rescue.

Dunstan High School

TWO teams competed in the OSS futsal tournament, the boys finishing second in their grade and the girls third.

The rowing squad had another strong year which culminated in some great performances by many of the crews at the Maadi Cup. The school came away from the regatta with five medals, three golds and two silver.

The boys and girls softball teams competed in the South Island secondary schools division 2 championships during tournament week, the boys finishing second and the girls third.

The boys and girls volleyball teams also competed in tournament week, attending the South Island satellite championships. The boys were sixth and the girls ninth.

The athletics team achieved eight firsts, seven seconds and two thirds at the recent

OSS championships. Following this event, a small team competed in the South Islands championships.

A group of pupils competed in the SISS mountain biking champs, with mixed results.