Race puts students’ fitness to test
Katikati College sent a junior team of Year 9s for their first experience of adventure racing to Rotorua at the annual Get2Go Adventure Race 2018, hosted by Hilary Outdoors.
Always an exceptional experience, the first event of stand-up paddle-boarding saw thick fog nearly obscuring the markers. The team was keen though and got stuck in straight away. After finishing the SUP relay the team went over to the Waipa Mill mountain bike park for the next leg, which warmed them up considerably as they raced the other five teams around the track to gather up points. The orienteering course followed, put together by the Orienteering Club around the Government Gardens in the centre of town. By now the day was hot and the fitness of the Year 9s was put to the test using maps and compasses searching for markers under timepressure. The final event was rock climbing and enormous fun scaling the walls of The Wall getting points for height and learning how to belay their teammates. Overall the team of Emily Ashley, Eli Brydon, Aylish Dunlop, Beau Moka, Mikaela Salmon, Luke Spurr and Thomas Swain finished down the rankings, but as one of the younger teams there, good experience for next year.
BOP JUNIOR BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
The Junior Boys A team is playing well and has won all of their games by a considerable margin. The team is playing well together, passing, running the plays taught to them by their student coaches, Scott Aylwin and Tom O’Brien, and generally enjoying the game. On August 3 they played in the BOP Junior Basketball tournament in A grade. Their first game was against Otumoetai College and was lost by two points. The team played really well winning the rest of their games including beating old rivals Waihi College to finish third overall.
BASKETBALL
Both senior teams are having very good seasons with the latest results showing how far they have come. The Senior Boys team played Mount B and won easily leading from the start winning the first quarter 18-02. The team were consistently scoring around 18 in each quarter. Mount picked up a bit but could not match the speed or accuracy in shooting displayed from the KKC team. The boys all played well as a team, passing the ball around, running the plays and being strong on defence. With Scott Aylwin recovering from knee surgery he wasn’t playing, but that enabled him to concentrate on being the coach. The team has played very well this year and have won all of their games so far to lead the pool. Finals are in a few weeks time.
The B grade girls team are also in a strong position with their latest two games top results with a massive 81-18 win over Bethlehem College B the previous Tuesday and this week a win over Mount B 41-31 in a game that see-sawed, with both teams taking the lead at different points. Standout player Annmarie Brown shot two threepointers to take the points out of reach for MMC. The team’s looking to do well at the BOP Senior Tournament and are also fundraising to attend Hoop Nation next term.
FOOTBALL
Katikati welcomed Bethlehem College last Saturday in what promised to be a hard fought match, with the team looking to take points from Bethlehem for the first time this season. The home team got off to a quick start, with captain Tanner Hayes neatly finishing after latching onto the end of a clever through ball from Cameron Hankins. BC replied promptly tying the game up minutes after the opening goal. Katikati were awarded a free kick midway through the first half, which Joe Niziolek expertly placed around the wall to take the advantage back. Only for BC to once again draw the scores level minutes after, once again 2-2 was the score going into halftime and remained to the final whistle. Standout players for Katikati were Khuswaran Joshi, Cameron Hankins and Patrick Vallely.
HOCKEY
The first XI Boys took on Hillcrest High in Tauranga and suffered their first loss for the season. Hillcrest, who were the underdogs on paper came out fighting and though KKC had the majority of the possession and territory, could not get past a determined and physical defence. The boys all played with grit and had constant forays into the circle, but the Hillcrest goalkeeper had the game of his life, saving five sure goals. The penalty corners were all foiled with frustration building. In the last minute Hillcrest got a breakaway and fired a perfect tomma into the goal for a unlikely win 0-1.
KKC Girls first X1 hockey team travelled to Rotorua to play Taupo Nui a Tia. The team did not start well adjusting to the speed and skill of the opposition who quickly scored three goals before KKC gained belief they were still in the game. With the needed increase in work-rate at this level the girls finally took some control of the game. It was pleasing to see the team combine with accurate passing through the midfield to score an amazing goal, which Amy Fotheringhame finished off. In the second half the girls did well to slow the game down with excellent defensive play by Margaret Sukkel and impressive saves by Phoebe Robertson in goal. Final score 1-3.
RUGBY
An exciting game of rugby was held on Friday with Katikati College meeting Opotiki College in the semifinal of the first XV Division 2 grade. Played in sunny conditions the match was a curtain-raiser for the BOP Steamers vs Auckland preseason warmup at Moore Park.
The game started lively enough with good possession of the ball and strong running resulting in the first try to Filipe Vakasiuola and then another to Tesimoni Uilou, who converted his own try. This gave KKC the early advantage of 12-0 in the first five minutes.
Opotiki struck back quickly with a good try out wide to get them on the scoreboard. The game then began in earnest with OC getting into their work and putting pressure on Katikati’s line breaking tackles and making good territory gains. Dallas Davis was everywhere as he tried to stem the flow, but missed tackles cost KKC and they ended up on their own line fighting to stop the rampant OC forwards. They managed to hold them out for a good few minutes before OC scored and converted into the wind 12-12. The tide turned as KKC lost a bit of shape and a penalty to OC put them in the lead 12-15 and that is where it stayed through halftime. KKC brought on some fresh legs and the insertion of Lesen Huiarangi into the centres revitalised the backline and the ball started being released early. A dropped ball gave OC a scrum near the KKC posts, but a crucial tighthead from Josh McClean gave KKC possession and great passing through the hands saw Sositini Tautuaa score out wide to put the boys back in front 17-15. OC redoubled their efforts and only sterling defence saw them held up over the line. Forwards Quinton Landman, Brad Jeffrey and Ryan Crapp played with mettle and forced the Opotiki team on to the back foot and some great connected play saw Uilou score, with the conversion from captain Joel Madsen to win the game 24-15. Having started in Division 3, working their way up to the final of Division 2 is an amazing accomplishment.
The team play the final in Rotorua.
NETBALL
An excellent final game in the Harbourside Premier 1A playoff saw KKC Senior A take on Bethlehem College Senior A for
5th/6th. In a clean well-fought match KKC never looked in any danger utilising the full width of the court and driving hard into the circle. The game was an overall good last game from the girls with Annmaree Brown in GS playing well and shooting at
92 per cent. Great work from mid court with Jordan Nicholson working hard and adding pressure throughout her two thirds causing errors for Bethlehem making her Player of the Game. The girls were proud of their final win 50-31 and are now buzzing for Upper North Island Secondary Schools tournament.