These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
Kaikorai Valley College
Kasib Murdoch fought in the South Island Golden Gloves boxing championships in Christchurch recently, winning first place in the 60kg junior male open, as well as most scientific junior boxer and junior best bout of the competition.
Tessa Brownlie (year 10) attended the Canterbury judo open and competed in the senior girls and the women's cadets in which she finished second in the under-63kg division. It was the first time in New Zealand that senior girls could compete in the women's cadets. She then went on to finish third-equal in the women's cadets open and third-equal in the girls open.
College numbers in smallbore rifle shooting have increased and up to 20 attend club night on Wednesdays.
The South Island table tennis individual championships were held on May 14-15. Emma Dingley-Crawford and Jasmine Ngatae teamed up to win silver in the under-15 girls doubles and Emma also won won bronze in under-15 girls singles. Paige Patrick and Emily Roy-Jones won silver in the under-13 girls doubles and Emily also gained bronze in the under-13 girls singles.
Kaikorai Valley College held the annual winter sports exchange with its Christchurch sister school, Riccarton High School, last week. A total of 85 students were billeted overnight and sports played on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. This exchange has taken place for more than 50 years.
Logan Park High School
Ben Deaker (17) has been selected for the New Zealand schools diving team to compete at the Australian Schools Games in New South Wales in August. At the New Zealand championships in Hamilton recently, he came first in platform, and third in the 3m.
The school cross-country featured some strong performances. Rebecca Dalphin was the fastest girl overall and Henri Gaudin the fastest boy. Winners were: boys, over-16, Henri Gaudin; under-16, Louis Freeman; under-15, Finn McKinlay; under-14, Daniel Cowles; girls, over-16, Izzie Locker; under-16, Mary Locker; under-15, Annie Kennedy-Atchison; under-14, Rebecca Dalphin. In the Otago cross-country champs, Dalphin was second in the under-14 girls. Louis Freeman and Hamish McKinley placed in the top 10 in the senior boys race.
In the Otago-Southland cross-country relay, Henri Gaudin, Louis Freeman, Izzie Locker and Rebecca Dalphin won the mixed race.
Otago under-15 player Jorga Hutton won the girls singles plate at the Southland badminton championships in Invercargill over Queen's Birthday weekend.
About 130 students will compete in the co-ed winter sports tournament at the end of June. Pupils will take part in basketball, netball, hockey, badminton and football.
Finn Lillis has been selected for the Sassenachs under-15 representative rugby team to compete in August.
Shae Moore continues to impress in representative football and will travel to Ireland in July with the Otago United team for the SuperCup NI 2016.
Kate Denys has been selected for the Otago women's handball team.
King's High School
Following on from a 7-3 victory against OBHS during the interschool, the first X1 footballers needed to beat Timaru Boys' in Timaru on Queen's Birthday Monday in its NZSS qualifier to automatically gain entry into the top boys tournament in Tauranga during winter tournament week. King's ended up winning this encounter 4-1 with goals to Ben Kiore and a hat trick to George McCall. This is the second successive year King's has been the top qualifier from the region.
The school travelled to Christchurch to compete against Shirley Boys High in the annual winter interschool. The first XV lost 24-17, the under-14 Panthers won 81-12, the junior football team won 5-1, the first basketball team had a comfortable victory 79-54 but the young surfing team just lost an epic battle 32.5-1.5. The overall result went to King's 3-2.
Tom White was second in the endurance motorcycling 0-200cc competition recently in Taupo. This is the second year in a row Tom has placed second in the national event which involves competitors riding for five to six hours, which means that it is more about strategy than speed.
Hockey player Malachi Buschl and athlete Felix McDonald have had their sporting abilities acknowledged recently in selection for the prestigious National Pathways to Podium programme. Kees Duyvesteyn (cycling), Josh Aitcheson (basketball) and Jack Laney (rowing) have been selected in the Academy Otago Programme.
Taieri College
The annual interchange with South Otago High School was held in cool crisp conditions at Taieri College. The home team won the netball, basketball, colts rugby, theatre sports and boys football for an overall win. South Otago won the boys 1st XI hockey and first XV rugby fixtures. The girls football and hockey were drawn.
Many sports have enjoyed success during the winter season.
The girls hockey team has gained a place in the premier grade of secondary school hockey in Dunedin. This team is made up of mainly year 10 to 12 students and has a big future ahead of it. The girls football team has now also earned promotion from division two after a successful first round of competition. It played six competition games, winning all of them without conceding a goal.
The senior A netball team, which plays in premier B, won six of its seven games to finish one point behind the top team and is now involved in a new round-robin series with the top four teams. The side will play off against three club teams for the next three rounds.
The senior B team, which is also playing in the adult competition, was placed third in its grade.
The 9A, 10A and 10B teams are playing in the secondary schools premier grades with the 9A team finishing second in premier three at the end of the first round. The year 9 Green and year 10 Rata teams won their sections.
At the Otago SS netball tournament, the senior A team finished third.
Otago Girls' High School
One of many recent highlights has been the cross-country teams. At the Otago-Southland championships in Milton, sisters Jenna and Taylor Thorne and Hannah and Lucy Matehaere came second in the senior division, with Jenna equalling the fastest time. The junior team of Elsa Neuman, Rebecca Hill, Caitlin O'Donnell and Thalia Roome came first with Thalia recording the fastest time.
Renee Perenara, Nikita MacDonald, Khata Pearce and Thalia Roome competed at the South Island taekwondo tournament. They all won medals with Thalia Roome claiming two golds and winning the trophy for the best black belt fighter. Alaina Baker competed at the Canterbury Open judo competition and won bronze in the cadets open weight division (14-17yrs), bronze in her weight division for junior women (15-20yrs) and bronze in the open weight division for junior women. Alaina is ranked sixth in New Zealand.
At the OSS cross country championship, Otago Girls' teams placed first and third in the under-14 girls 3km race. The under-15 team also finished first while the under-16 team was second. Top individual results were: under-14 girls, Caitlin O'Donnell, 1; under-15 girls, Thalia Roome 2, Elsa Neuman 3.
At the OSS orienteering championships Cailyn McConnell was first in the year 9-10 race and Renee Mullins runner-up in the year 11-13 race.
Ella Rooney, Myra Newman and Sophie Wallis have all been named in the Southern under-18 hockey team, and Maddy Dixon has been selected for the New Zealand women's dodgeball team.
At the recent OSS netball tournament, the 9A team was first in its section, the 10A team was 10th and the senior A team was 5th.
John McGlashan College
Fencer Louis Jennings continued his good form when he won the New Zealand under-17 epee recently. Louis also finished fifth in the foil. The JMC golf team picked up a third placing in the net category at the World Golf Challenge in Christchurch during the April school holidays. Callum White finished second in division 2, Rob Perry finished second in division 3, Hamish Brown fifth in division 3 and Kyle Clark 10th in division 1.
JMC is well represented across the age-groups in Otago basketball teams. Sean Duff is in the under-19 squad, Max Gomez, Alex Byars and Josh Stoddard are in the under-17 squad and Will Edwards, Max Walker and Dom Morrison are in the under-15 team.
The cross-country season has culminated in the OSS event at Kaikorai Valley College. JMC's best performances came from the under-14 age group in which the three-man teams finished first and second. Josh Hou finished second, Oliver Walker third and Will Turner completed the team. The under-16 team finished second with Josh Stoddard (third) and Ben Mitchell (fourth) the top two placers. Matt Silvey was the third team member.
JMC will travel to St Andrews in Christchurch for the winter exchange on June 26. Eight cultural and sporting codes are represented.
Roxburgh Area School
The A and B netball teams competed at OSS tournament in Dunedin. The B team was 15th-equal in the intermediate grade, and the A team was second in B grade. There were many close games and the teams gained valuable skills and knowledge for the netball season.
The school has a team of four competing in the NZSS target shooting postal competition and has sent in its first round of cards. Final results will be known later in the year. The team is being coached by the Clyde shooting club.
Three teams are practising for the Central Otago basketball tournament at the end of this month in Queenstown and looking forward to the games.
Roxburgh pupils are fundraising to attend the New Zealand Area Schools tournament in Dunedin on July 11-14 at the Edgar Centre and Bayfield Park. This will be an excellent opportunity for pupils to represent their region and gain higher honours in the South Island and New Zealand teams.
Dunstan High School
The Dunstan 1st XV's appearance on Sky Sports College Rugby was a major event on the school's sporting calendar. Dunstan played host to Waitaki Boys' High School in an entertaining and fast-paced game. The team played with much spirit and fought valiantly against much larger opposition but was eventually beaten 48-15. After a few losses, the team was able to get a win in its most recent game, beating Kavanagh College 44-20.
Dunstan's top netball teams have had a busy month preparing for the OSS netball tournament. The 9A, 10A and senior A teams represented the school at the event and finished ninth, fifth and seventh respectively.
A small group of pupils recently competed at the OSS cross-country championships with second place in the senior girls category the top performance.
The school will soon be hosting Central Southland College in the annual sports exchange. The event will involve many of the school's sports teams who will be looking to hold on to the interschool trophy for another year.
St Hilda's Collegiate
Following good results in the Caversham harriers relay, Otago-Southland cross-country relay and OSS cross-country championship race series, St Hilda's travelled to Rotorua on June 18 for the NZSS event. Seven girls made up the team - Harriet Cottle competed as an individual in the year 9 race and Sophie Sinclair, Cecilia Crooks, Kate Higham, Suzie White, Georgia Mitchell and Olivia Gold took part as a six-person team in the senior category. The senior girls team was third in the six-person and three-person teams. The best performer was Kate Higham who was 23rd in the senior girls race.
Rina Watt went to the under-18 women's ice hockey camp in Auckland in April. She has now been selected for the New Zealand women's under-18 team to play in a tournament against a Canadian team in Gore in August .
