Aquinas had a successful 2024 AIMS tournament, bringing home five individual medals! This is our best result by individual athletes in several years.

Congratulations to all our athletes who gave it their all and represented our school so well. Here’s a wrap-up of how they did.

Medal-Winners:

Cross Country: Sophie Reid (Year 7) finished second out of 146 Year 7 runners to win silver. An amazing result. Aquinas placed fifth in the 12km team relay. Other notable performances include Jono Dalton’s 26th placing out of 140 Year 7 boys.

Badminton: In a major upset, Caleb Lim (Year 8) finished third in the boys’ badminton event, beating top-seeded players to claim bronze. 

Gymnastics: Our Year 8 gymnasts did very well. Tilly Martin placed third overall in the artistic open (Step 7) competition, and was third-equal for her bar routine. Liv McLeod was third in the open novice division and was first in the floor routine and third-equal on the bar! 

Swimming: Year 7’s Rylee Jury won bronze in the 11-year-old girls’ 200m backstroke! She also had several top 10 finishes as did Year 8’s Mila Kennedy. 

Code Results:

Surfing: Congratulations to Solomon Ryan who finished fourth in the boys Year 8 surfing competition. A great accomplishment, and exciting to have a new sport for us to cheer on. 

Girls Basketball: Finished a sensational fifth out of 31 teams! They won six of their eight games, are thought to be the first Aquinas girls basketball team at AIMS to place in the top five. 

Boys Basketball: Struck some strong opposition at the start of the tournament but kept battling to move Aquinas up a division (18 rankings) on last year! They had four wins and four losses, three of which were just by two goals. 

Open Water Polo Team: Placed sixth out of 20 teams, a stellar result! Aquinas water polo always delivers at AIMS and this year was no different. The team faced some strong opposition in the open division.

BMX: Congratulations to Maya Perrett who was fifth in the Year 8 girls BMX racing and was named BMX Sportswoman of the 2024 AIMS Games for her sportsmanship throughout the year. Well done Maya!

Tennis: Ryan Choi won his section of the Year 7 boys tennis contest to finish 17th overall in Division 2. He won four of five games. 

Boys Football: Started against some tough teams in their nine-match competition. Many of the team’s players are new to football and made great progress throughout the week. 

Girls Football: Displayed great spirit in all nine games. They won five of their games for a respectable mid-field finish. 

Rugby Sevens: Had a tough start with some enormous opponents but found their feet in pool play to pull off some wins.

Futsal: The team finished on a high with two wins in their last games, both of them against local teams - Tauranga Intermediate and Bethlehem College.

Rock Climbing: Emma Sutherland made it through to the quarter-finals of the Year 7 rock climbing after placing in the top 30.

Hockey: Our mixed hockey team had an unlucky draw but kept battling throughout the week to secure three wins. 

Netball: The team played a mighty ten games throughout the week, facing some slick teams. They got some great wins and displayed great sportsmanship. 

Rip Rugby: The team played an impressive 13 matches during AIMS and gave it their all. Props to the team for a top effort. 

Indoor Bowls: Our four bowlers had a great week of competition, with Year 7’s Becky Ryder winning four games and making it through to the finals!

Mountain Biking: Year 8’s Declan Marshall and Lachlan Sutherland represented Aquinas at Mountain Biking in the cross-country and Endurance events. 

Orienteering:We had three students take part in orienteering this year, George McKinnon and Sophie Reid of Year 7, and Hailey Mennie in Year 8. The events were held at the Historic Village and McLaren’s Falls.