Kavanagh College
Winter tournament week is fast approaching, and Kavanagh will have five codes away in different parts of the country.
The boys' First XI football team will compete for the Linwood Cup in Dunedin; the girls' First XI football team will play in Invercargill; the mixed hockey team is off to Greymouth; the under-15 rugby team has a mini tour of Central Otago; the boys' basketballers will play in Ashburton, and the senior A netball team will compete in Timaru.
In the local secondary schools football competition, the Kavanagh second XI and third XI have reached the final of their grade and will play each other.
The first XV has had a great month of rugby, beating St Kevin's and Mount Aspiring.
This puts it in an excellent position to win the bottom section of the secondary schools competition.
The Kavanagh badminton teams also had success in their respective competitions, and the Kavanagh curlers have been in dominant form throughout the term.
The girls' senior A basketball team is in the top four of the local competition and hoping to be really competitive.
Columba College
Columba has had a large contingent of players in recent representative teams. - Hockey: Isabelle Becconsall-Ryan, Ellie Duncan, Audrey Hayes, Jaime Preston, Andrea Smith, Stephanie Smith, Charlotte Wheeler, Savanna Westgate (Otago under-15 A), Grace Blackie, Lucy Duncan, Sophie Gaudin, Liv Presto and Fiona Schultz (under-15 development).
Netball: Meg Sycamore, Maddison Williams (Dunedin under-14 A), Abby Anderson, Meg Breen, Kirsten Dore, Ashlee Turner (under-14 B), Chenoa Metua, McKayler Moore, Milly Nesbit (under-15 A), Maia Aoake, Shannon Inch (under-15 B).
Ella Harris won a silver medal in the under-20 time trial at the South Island cycling championships.
Holly Cameron, Hannah Rodgers and Thirza Smith won bronze in the under-16 team time trial, and the open women's team time trial of Bailey Saville, Ella Harris, Phoebe Swale and Ruby Knight finished with a silver medal.
The Columba swimming champions are Meg Sycamore (junior), Gabrielle Trotter (intermediate), Caitlin Deans and Devon Familton (joint senior champions). Records were broken by Meg in the 50m breaststroke, Gabrielle in the 50m butterfly and Caitlin in the 50m freestyle.
Sport Otago's ''coaches in schools'' programme is up and running at Columba and there has been a great response with more than 40 participating.
Bayfield High School
Bradley Caffell gained an outstanding result in Christchurch when he competed in the open category in the Special Olympics powerlifting.
Bayfield has recently welcomed pupils from contributing primary schools to compete in a volleyball tournament.
This followed coaching sessions in local primary schools.
Bayfield's rugby team in the Saturday morning competition is going well and numbers have grown.
Cody Johnston (year 9) will trial for the Otago metro rugby team this weekend.
The senior A boys basketball team has lost only one game all season, including in the co-ed tournament and interschools, where it won all its games.
The junior boys team is going well and the girls teams are in the top four in their respective grades.
Jade Fielding recently competed in the Otago gym sports aerobics competition.
Jade placed second in the step 8 pair open grade and first in the step 8 individual grade for ages 15-17.
Queen's High School
The Queen's aerobics team competed at the Otago gymsports aerobics championships in Cromwell in July.
All girls aiming to achieve the national championships qualifying mark were successful in their individual and pair categories.
Leah Anderson, Chloe Robertson (both step 4), Sian Remon, Riley Haugh, Kylie Lyders and Lucy Elliott (step 8) produced fine performances.
Kylie and Lucy attended the national gymsports aerobics championships in Auckland on August 1.
Kylie was third and Lucy eighth in step individual, and they placed second in step 8 pair.
Shannay Nicholls competed with the Otago darts team in the youth grade at the national championships in Wainuiomata during the holidays and won a silver medal in the consolation round.
The Otago under-17 basketball team which played in the national championships in Auckland in July included year 12 Queen's pupil Casey Kruishoop.
Queen's will be well represented in the netball semifinals by seven teams.
The senior A team is playing in the Wednesday night league and began well with a win over Tokomairiro.
Mount Aspiring College
Mount Aspiring pupils have been busy at regional, national and international competitions over the past month.
The MAC ski and snowboard championships were held last week at Cardrona, and the champions were Jin-Wook Hong (years 7-8 ski), Blake Hartley, Kate Richards (years 9-10 ski), Ronan Thompson, Briar Hight (years 9-10 snowboard), Ben Richards, Emily Rose-James (senior ski), Cory O'Regan and Lucy Hayes (senior snowboard).
Two Mount Aspiring pupils competed in the slopestyle at the recent Australia New Zealand Cup.
Finn Bilous signalled he is a skier to watch, placing third overall, while Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, competing in her first FIS competition, impressed the judges and won the women's snowboard competition.
Hamish McLean has just returned from the world para-swimming championships in Glasgow.
Having only just turned 16, Hamish was the youngest of eight New Zealand swimmers and competed in the 100m freestyle, 200m medley and 400m freestyle.
He achieved personal-best times in all races and qualified for the finals in the 400m freestyle, placing eighth in the world.
Cycling sisters Ellessa and Zoe Andrews competed in the South Island secondary schools road cycling championships in the school holidays.
For Zoe, this was her first major road cycling event, and she placed an impressive seventh in the individual time trial and eighth in the road race.
Following her earlier track cycling success, Ellesse continued in the same form, winning the road race and finishing second in the time trial.
Eight MAC athletes competed at the New Zealand schools cross-country in Dunedin.
Top-10 placings were achieved by Sammy Burke (fifth, senior girls) and Gregor Findlay (seventh, junior boys). Sammy's placing secured her a spot in the New Zealand team to compete at the Australian cross-country championships in August.
Otago Boys' High School
Maniototo brothers Hamish (year 12) and Hunter Walker (year 9), both hostel boys at Otago Boys', took part in a national under-21 curling tournament in the holidays competing for the Mt Ida team.
Hamish was skip and Hunter the second.
The team won the silver medal, a fine achievement in an under-21 event.
Ewan Syme (year 11) won gold in the under-16 age-group at the South Island secondary schools cycling road race at Ruapuna.
Blue Mountain College
Blue Mountain's rugby and netball teams toured Australia last month.
They bused to Innisfail and played Good Council College, winning the rugby 35-29, then played Trinity College, the B netball team coming from behind to win 18-16.
After spending four nights on the Gold Coast, they returned to New Zealand on July 19 exhausted but excited about their sporting and cultural trip.
Blue Mountain finished seventh of 24 teams in the combined section of the South Island schools netball junior development tournament.
On day one, Blue Mountain beat Waitaki Girls' and MacKenzie, but lost to Ellesmere.
On day two, the school beat Nayland and Mountainview. This placed Blue Mountain in second position in pool A.
It lost to Hillmorton High School in the quarterfinal then Westland in the semifinal, but won the final game against Hillview, 18-16, to secure seventh place.
Harry McKenzie was first in the Southland under-13 cross-country championships at the field days site at Waimumu.
Tamara Weller was selected for the Southland under-17 netball team that was seventh out of 36 teams.
Liam Criglington has been selected in the Southland under-15 hockey team.
South Otago High School
South Otago High School continues to provide many sporting opportunities to its students.
Winter sports are drawing to a close, with the first XV in the final of the Secondary School First XV competition this coming weekend against John McGlashan.
The first XI football team has had only one loss for the season, and the move to the Saturday club competition has been a positive one for it.
Next week it has an eight-man team headed to West Otago to contest the intercollegiate clay bird shooting.
This is an annual event contested by Blue Mountain College, Lawrence, Toko, Catlins and SOHS.
The following week the school will hold its swimming sports. With many surf life-savers from the Kaka Point Club, a strong Clutha Swim Club, and many recreational swimmers, it is expecting a great day.
• These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by Perpetual Guardian.
