School sports awards celebrate achievements

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

Otago Girls’ High School

Otago Girls’ High School has welcomed in the summer sport season for 2020 with pupils participating in all summer codes. Along with the start of summer sports in term four, the annual sports awards were held.

This was a chance to celebrate the successes of sporting pupils with awards to juniors in a Senior A team, pupil coaches, five years’ participation, referees/ umpires, outstanding achievements, prestige sports prizes and blues and New Zealand blues.

The swim team competed at the secondary school nationals in Hamilton with pleasing results from all.

Maddison Wills continues to make top placings in New Zealand club and school events. Several pupils were in the Otakou Maori under17 sevens team which won the South Island competition. Four pupils took part in the SISS duathlon at Teretonga Park in Invercargill. Battling the adverse weather conditions, the team still produced great results. The OGHS sevens team competed in the South Island sevens tournament and was placed fourth.

There have also had some pupils competing in the national figure skating championships.

Sophie Matehaere competed in the surf lifesaving White Island race and was the first paddleboarder to finish in her age group.

Roxburgh Area School

The senior basketball team won the finals of the Lawrence Social Basketball league, winning all its games throughout the season and the final by a convincing 13 points against an adult team.

The Roxburgh team has now won the competition for three years in a row, an outstanding effort.

Nevaeh Knudsen was selected to play in the rugby sevens in Timaru recently, playing for Dunstan. Her team was seventh overall.

Western riding — Jessamy Wales, Luke McKerchar and Jess McKerchar competed in the NZ Secondary Schools Western Riding Championships in Lawrence at the beginning of October. Thirtysix pupils attended the competition, representing six schools from around Otago. The day started with a turnout class, which Roxburgh won thanks to the matching handmade saddle blankets and beautiful plaiting done by team manager Karen McKerchar. Next up was the barrel racing, won in style with a gutsy and very fast ride by Jess, with Jessamy also contributing points with a sixth placing in her very first rodeo event. The bending race followed, in which Luke knocked an unlucky pole to cost him the win, but Jessamy steadied the boat with an error free ride to claim fourth place. The breakaway roping proved a major challenge, but Luke then stepped up to the massive task of the steer ride, and produced a classy ride to take out third place, with a great display of balance and determination. The team finished up with the fancy dress, in which the camel trader outfits secured them a popular win. The team was thrilled to finish in third place overall.

King’s High School

King’s has 12 volleyball teams this year, and it is a sport that continues to flourish and grow under the leadership and expertise of head coach and King’s old boy Andy Campbell.

Teacher Vicki Jopson is also buzzing around school full of energy now that the water polo team are into their regular training regime and competition.

The 1st XI cricket team had a trip to Willows to open its term four campaign, and on this occasion came away second best against a very strong Willows XI.

However, the side bounced back quickly last weekend when, for the first time, they jointly secured the McCullum Cup, which is for a T20 tournament played between OBHS, JMC and Wakatipu. King’s 1st XI captain and New Zealand under19 World Cup standout Beckham WheelerGreenall was the star of the weekend, providing a scintillating 102 off 56 balls in the final game.

The King’s Lions’ Sports awards were held late last month.

The South Island champion hockey team took out the team of the year award, for which it was nominated alongside touch and rugby.

As always, the most prestigious component of the evening was the Salter Trophy presentation, awarded to King’s most outstanding sportsman. The nominees invited on stage were Zeke Buschl, Angus Cameron, James Nicolson, Taine Hand, Beckham WheelerGreenall and Rohan Wingham.

It was Beckham WheelerGreenall who prevailed as the champion, and his photo will stand alongside the rest of King’s Salter Trophy winners for THE PRIDE to celebrate.

St Hilda’s Collegiate

With all the winter sport now complete, the girls have been getting involved in many summer sports. Touch, cricket, volleyball, water polo, futsal and tennis are all under way.

At the start of October, year 9 student Jenna Clearwater competed in the South Island SISS motocross event. Jenna entered in the 1214yr 125/250 class and finished seventh, which was a great achievement.

The clay trap shooters also took part in events over the school holidays, with Analee Toro winning the ladies points score.

Two girls competed at the NZ Age group short course swimming championships.

Jessica Scott had an amazing event picking up four golds, one silver, two Otago records and also a silver in the open section of the 200m butterfly.

The school has also just celebrated its sports blues evening, where some wonderful achievements over the past year were acknowledged.

The school now looks to the final few weeks, where many girls will still compete in championships and nationals in touch, water polo and cricket as well as a fun junior sports week in November.

This will be a fantastic way to end the 2020 year.

East Otago High School

Term four is set to be another busy one at East Otago High School. There are two intermediate and two senior touch teams competing in Dunedin, an intermediate and a junior volleyball team competing in Dunedin.

The Year 9 and 10 pupils are looking forward to the junior sports week and the year 7/8 pupils have several athletics days coming up.

East Otago High School held its swimming sports and 57 pupils competed in the event. A highlight of the day was the mystery relay, which saw students having to trade wet clothing before they could swim their length. There were three school swimming records broken on the day.

Deegan Croucher broke the girls’ year 9/10 50m backstroke record (43.60) and Kari Croucher broke two year 1113 records, the 100m individual medley (1:24.54) and 100m freestyle (1:15.18).

Logan Park High School

In September Logan Park had a fantastic win in the Premier Mixed division of the Hilary Outdoors Junior Get 2 Go Challenge Adventure race. This win qualifies Logan Park to represent the Otago/Southland region at the national final on Great Barrier Island in December. The team will compete against the best adventure race teams from around New Zealand.

Get2Go team members are: Eva Woodhouse, Cora Chapman, Tsugumi Parks Watanabe, Zoe Barton, Kieran Black, Ethan Lambeth, Oscar Lambeth and Flynn Hayward.

The school cross country was held in October for students and staff. Nico Alvarez ReyVirag ran the fastest overall time. The event catered for both the competitive runners and those running for active recreation. Aoraki House took out the House Cup.

Further to Nico's success in the school cross country, he finished the winter running season on a high winning the junior (under18) 5km Otago road race with a time of 17 min 3 sec (with the second fastest overall time for that distance). Nico is looking forward to summer track season and the National Secondary School Championships in Tauranga in December.

The Student Sports Council have ended a successful, challenging, Covidaffected year on a high with the interhouse netball competition aimed at Years 911.

The council have run many successful events this year which have encouraged Logan Park students to engage in sport. A highlight was the LPHS IsolationStation, which was run during lockdown to keep Logan Park Students connected and physically active.

John McGlashan College

Tom Gold recently had a very successful national swimming championships in Auckland. Tom was third in the open men’s 50m freestyle, second in the under19 50m freestyle, and third in the under19 50m butterfly. Tom has also beaten a 17yearold Otago record in the 50m freestyle.

Matheson Colqhoun has just been named in the New Zealand team in the 16–19 year age group for duathlon which will compete in the Netherlands next year.

Jack Timu played for the New Zealand under16 boys touch team in a recent tournament in Auckland

Adam Woodhouse won silver at the National Secondary Schools Weightlifting Champs with a combined 210kg in the 89kg class snatch and clean & jerk.

Aidan Dougherty, Feilim Dougherty, Ian Audas, Jack Lewis, Max Simpson, Oliver Bar were all in the Dunedin’s Junior Thunder under18 ice hockey team and took silver at the 2020 New Zealand under18 ice hockey league tournament.

Harrison Morton, Josh Whaanga, and Liam Ferguson were in the Highlanders under18 rugby team which beat its Crusader counterpart.

At the national schools’ trap shooting competition in Christchurch, Jack Robertson came sixth in the senior single rise, Harry Morshuis came second in the junior single rise and Dan Kunac was picked in the region’s team.