New Zealand Secondary School’s Volleyball Championships – The Senior A and Senior B Girls’ teams went to Palmerston North with high hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of each competition. Both teams surpassed their goal. The Senior B team went through with only one loss in pool play to win the Division 5 Championship. For such a young team this was a fantastic effort and sent off their coach Mikae Tuu’u in the best possible way. The Senior A Girls also had a wonderful tournament, playing some of their best volleyball of the season. They fought hard and in the semi-finals were beaten by a very good St Mary’s College team. Today the team lost to Christchurch Girls’ High School to finish fourth in New Zealand – a truly amazing effort by the team.
South Island Secondary School’s Touch Championships – The Senior Mixed touch team performed very well at the South Island Secondary Schools Touch Championships at Sheldon Park last weekend, becoming South Island champions. The team played a strong semi-final, beating South Otago High School, then enjoyed a narrow win in the final over the 2022 national champions, Rolleston College. In the final, the St Andrew’s team made a strong start and were a few points up, but Rolleston made a big come back and the score was 7–7 with less than a minute to go. St Andrew’s managed to score in the last few seconds of the game to win 8–7.
New Zealand Secondary School’s Tennis Championships – This week in Christchurch saw the top championship tennis teams meet to play the National Secondary Schools Championship. Entry requirements were to have at least three players with high singles rankings (S2–S5) which is not an easy thing to have. For the first time in 20 years of being involved with the competition, the Mixed team’s competition played Mixed Doubles after four Singles matches. Some very tough competition ensued during the week, with the closest being a countback on games against Ashburton College, with St Andrew’s winning 50 games to 48 after six matches. Over the four days of the competition, St Andrew’s finished fourth in New Zealand, a commendable effort against very strong competition.
New Zealand Secondary School’s Basketball Championships – Four teams travelled to Auckland to compete in the 3x3 championships – two Senior Boys’ teams, one Senior Girls’ team and one Junior Boys’ team. At the time of writing this report, all teams were having good success in their competition. Over the weekend the teams will be involved in the play-offs to determine their placings.
New Zealand Junior Secondary School’s Cricket Tournament – Our Year 10 cricket team travelled to Palmerston North to compete in the National Junior Secondary School’s tournament, which is made up of the top six teams in the country. Day 1 proved to be a bit of an eye-opener for the boys, with a loss to Napier Boys’ High School. Going into Day 2, the boys were desperate for an improved performance which they delivered, beating John McGlashan College by two wickets. On Wednesday they lost to Auckland Grammar School and once again turned things around yesterday beating Wellington College convincingly. Today they are playing Tauranga Boys’ High School and, at the time of writing this report, are well-placed to win.
South Island Secondary School’s MTB Championships – The mountain biking championships are being held at Coronet Peak in Queenstown, with three different categories – Cross Country, Downhill (which is not for the faint-hearted) and Enduro, a cross between cross country and downhill). When writing this report, both Cooper Pringle (Year 9) and William Pringle (Year 10) won gold in the Cross Country event, with William crowned the South Island U16 Champion and Cooper winning the U15 event. A great start to the championships which end on Sunday.
South Island Secondary School’s Water Polo Championships – This year, we have our Senior A Boys’ team and Senior Girls’ team competing in the championships, which continue throughout the coming weekend. At the time of writing this report, the teams have only played a couple of games each, with the boys having some success and the girls having a couple of big defeats. To put the girls’ defeats into context, they were entered in the B Grade but are playing in the A Grade so all their matches will be very tough.
New Zealand Junior Secondary School’s Futsal Championships – At the start of the week the Senior A Girls’ futsal team travelled to Wellington to compete in the Senior Girls’ futsal championships. After losing their first two matches, the girls came back strong over days 2 and 3 and beat Rangi Ruru Girls’ School convincingly to place 17th in New Zealand. The Senior Boys’ team joined the girls on Wednesday and started their championship. The boys’ team has had mixed results and, at the time of writing, still has one game to play.
South Island Secondary School’s Athletics Championships – At the time of writing this report, our nine athletes who qualified for the championships are on their way to Invercargill where they will be competing over the weekend.
