Kavanagh basketballers in NZ squad
These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association, which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
Bayfield High School
BAYFIELD pupils competed in the school’s annual winter sports exchange with Mountainview High School in Timaru. Bayfield won table tennis, badminton, chess, senior mixed hockey and senior girls basketball, but Mountainview won 76 overall to claim the cup.
Special mention to the Mountainview and Bayfield staff, coaches, managers, volunteer referees and umpires for taking the time to ensure the day was a success.
Bayfield High School will start a new winter sports exchange with Cromwell College to replace the previous exchange with Waimate High School. The school will also have teams competing in all sports codes in the CoEd Cup.
The school has more pupils participating in aerobics with 22 attending the regional competition in August. Many pupils are finalising their routines for the New Zealand Sport Aerobics & Fitness Open, in which they compete to gain a place at the FISAF world championships in the Netherlands.
Ice hockey, curling and canoe polo have all grown in popularity at Bayfield and these sports are adding more teams into their Otago secondary schools competitions. These pupils will take their talents to the SISS ice hockey and curling championships during Winter Tournament Week later in the season.
Emily Tomooka has been named captain of the Otago under20 girls volleyball team. Emily travelled to Wellington to play in the NZ Interprovincial Championships along with Claudia Tate and Campbell Rae.
Columba College
COLUMBA runners ran strongly to gain second place in the junior girls age group in two 2km relay events. The junior A team runners were Emily Prout, Anika Itadani, Jaime Reid and Rachael Turner. The team completed the Caversham race in 27min 26sec and the Milton relay in 30min 13sec.
The senior A team, consisting of Hannah Prout, Meg Sycamore, Maia Joseph and Honor BercinskasGauld. finished third in these events. Their time for the Caversham relays was 28min 17sec and for Milton, 30min 56sec.
The annual winter sports exchange against St Andrew’s College began with a hiss and a roar when the basketballers exceeded all expectations by beating a talented St Andrew’s side. The opposition made an impressive comeback in game two, and the series finished in a tie.
Opposing the moot ‘‘this house believes the state shall provide a free breakfast for every child’’, Columba’s debaters argued their point to precision. Abby Bowmar was best speaker.
The footballers had a fantastic game, going down 43 in what was recorded as one of the bestcontested exchange football games. Mikayla Gray (2) and Sienna Harper scored.
There was only one word to describe the performance of the hockey team: phenomenal. The score was 30 at halftime and 71 at fulltime, and the side definitely earned it.
The netball team lived up to the challenge of a tall and fast St Andrew’s team, finally going down 3428. Great work to all involved.
Kavanagh College
CONGRATULATIONS to Kavanagh basketball players Anita Samasoni and Annabelle Ring, who have been selected in the New Zealand under15 squad. This squad consists of the top 25 under15 players in New Zealand.
In April, Anita and Annabelle were two of the best 50 under15 girls from across New Zealand who spent four days in Auckland at a New Zealand Basketball under15 training camp. The trial was run by Tall Ferns coach Guy Molloy and Basketball New Zealand high performance manager Leonard King. From this training camp and trial, Anita and Annabelle were selected in the above squad.
The next step for Anita and Annabelle is working towards selection in the New Zealand under15 team to compete in the Oceania qualifiers in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea during December. Their ability and performance will be further evaluated during the under15 national tournament, after which the final team will be named.
On the winter sports front, all teams are acquitting themselves well. The school has just finished the crosscountry series run by OSSSA and once again Kavanagh pupils enjoyed the chance to compete against some very good athletes from other schools all over the region. Coming up on the calendar is the junior Catholic schools tournament on June 13, which pupils in years 710 compete in. This will be held in Dunedin at the Edgar Centre and Kettle Park.
Mount Aspiring College
TWENTYONE year 9 and 10 students benefited from a basketball coaching clinic organised by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association. Pupils enjoyed an intense session of drills and games delivered by two coaches from the Otago Gold Rush women’s team.
Three pupils won NZ championship events last month. Ben Silipo (year 9) won two gold medals at the NZ Age Group swimming championships, an exceptional feat in a highly competitive sport with hundreds of swimmers aiming for qualifying times to attend.
Year 13 pupils Holly Wigg and Phoebe Young also won national titles. Holly competed at the NZ Open Karate Championships, placing first in both the kata and kumite disciplines, while Phoebe had a convincing win in the under19 time trial at the NZ Age Group
Road Cycling Championships.
Closer to home, 11 pupils took part in the Otago Secondary Schools Crosscountry Championships in Dunedin. Gregor Findlay (senior boys), Campbell Wright (U16) and Zoe Smith (U15) all had convincing wins, while the rest of the team performed extremely well. Year 12 mountain biker Kim Cadzow won the Otago crosscountry MTB championships and Ben Silipo continued his swimming success with three golds, a silver and a bronze at the Otago Secondary Schools Swimming Championships.
Winter Olympic medallist Zoe SadowskiSynnott was recognised for her amazing achievements this season, winning two awards at the 2018 ASB Bank Otago Sports Awards. Zoe was awarded Junior Sportswoman of the Year and the Supreme award, following her success at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongyang, where she claimed bronze in the snowboard big air.
Otago Boys’ High School
PUPILS involved in 10 summer sports were awarded their blues recently, while two pupils were awarded Services to Sport awards.
There were also four national blazers awarded. One went to Michael Manson, a member of the under19 relay team that won gold at NZ Secondary Schools in December 2017. Jack Divers was selected for the NZ triathlon team to compete at the world age groups on the Gold Coast in September. Jordan Hand, in the under18 boys, and Sam Rowe, in the under18 mixed team, both did well at touch and will travel to Kuala Lumpur in August to compete at the junior worlds.
The first interschool this winter was an away trip to King’s High School. Twenty teams in various sports took part and the final result was 137 to Otago Boys’ High School.
Southland Boys’ High School travelled to Dunedin and Otago Boys’ had a convincing 61 win, with one draw. The draw was in the First XV clash, 1414.
All pupils competing in winter sports are settling into their competitions and so far the weather has been kind to the outdoor sports.
Jack McDowall, Elliott Alloo and Ryan Dey competed in the Otago secondary schools swim meet last week.
Jack had two thirds, Elliott a second and a third, and Ryan a second. Well done to all three.
Tokomairiro High School
WINTER sports are well under way at Tokomairiro
High School in term two. The school is fielding a record number of hockey teams: year 7, year 8, year 9, senior girls and senior boys.
Netball is strong with six netball teams: three senior teams and three junior teams.
Rugby representative selections are happening now and the following students have been selected.—
Topp Cup rugby for the Southern region: under13: Alex Burleigh, Brodie Ferguson, Lachie MacDonald, Lochlan Still, Millar McElrea, Seth Rogan and Toby Greene; under14: Nic Clark, Jimmy Flannery, Isaac Herbert, JD McLeod, Ben Lister and Conner Phillips; under16: Aiden Mallon and Zayde Francis.
Recently, Toko participated in the annual exchange with East Otago High School at the Edgar Centre.
There were 62 pupils from year 713 competing in netball, touch rugby, basketball and futsal. Final results went to Toko with 16 wins out of 28 games.