Our rowing prize giving reflected on the season that had been, and recognised some of our awesome achievements this year.

With all that Covid threw at us this year, HGHS had a phenomenal season. Together the girls survived all the early mornings, fought through the many zoom workouts and came out on top of the gut busting ergs.

This season we, as a school, only competed at three regattas. Yet we still saw the most successful rowing that Hamilton Girls' has had in a long time. First it started with Club Nationals down in Twizel. With the very last minute change of this regatta moving to Lake Ruataniwha due to Covid restrictions, instead of the originally planned event at Lake Karapiro, it meant we could only send a small group down. With seven girls attending, they came away with some outstanding results. We saw our first medals at Club Nationals since Georgia Allen back in 2014. Racing for the first time ever the Novice Quad of Amelia Kepa, Mila Graham, Caitlyn Silcock and Monique Austin brought home both a national title in the Novice Quad and a silver medal  in the Intermediate Quad where they raced against experienced crews. We also saw many A & B final finishes with our returners in the Club Double, Club Singles and Composite 8+ with Waikato.

North Island Secondary Schools. For the majority of the squad this was the first and for our Y10s, the only regatta of the season. This too saw many interruptions and a regatta being raced like we’ve never seen before. After Day One being cancelled due to the extreme weather, we saw our girls racing against the clock on Sunday for the fastest times. However, despite the challenges we still came away with an extremely successful North Islands for Hamilton Girls'. Two North Island Gold in the U15 Quad and Novice Quad. And three silvers in the U16 Single, Novice Double and the U15 Octuple.

Finally Maadi cup! A huge roller coaster of a week for everyone. Although we couldn’t have our Y10s along with us for the ride, the girls came away with phenomenal results, bringing home yet another TWO National titles. We first saw the Novice Double of Mila Graham and Monique Austin, this title being a back to back win for HGHS. In the second km we saw them walk through the field to take it out by 7 seconds! Extra special for the Austin family having Sports Captain Gabrielle Austin win it last year, and her younger sister Monique this season in 2022.

Next we saw the U18 Quad bring home the Noel Lynch Cup! In the most nerve wracking nail biting finish we saw them hold off Takapuna by a bow ball, just 0.36 of a second separating them. To win an Under 18 event at Maadi is huge, but to win it with a novice, two second year rowers and after battling sickness leading into Maadi, was insane. The field was stacked, coming up against crews where the majority were in their third or fourth season of rowing. Our girls were racing in a crew they’d very rarely trained with. They showed that with determination alone they can come out on top.  They made the decision that they wanted it and they left everything out on the course. All the hard work had paid off and produced those well deserved results.

Every single one of the girls in our squad were a contributing factor to the success of these crews, whether in them or not.

Prize Giving Award Winners:

Rower Of The Year - Mila Graham

Top Sweeper of the Year - Madeline Cox

Top Sculler of the Year - Gabrielle Austin

Junior Rower of the Year - Amelia Kepa

Top Coxswain - Reegan Isaac

Most Improved - Mylove Bennion-Lindsay

Most Conscientious - Phoebe Barnes

Best Performance by Crew - U18 Quad: Gabrielle Austin, Mila Graham, Madeline Cox, Phoebe Barnes + Reegan Isaac (Coxswain)

Season Results

New Zealand Club Nationals

GOLD - Novice Quad: Amelia Kepa, Mila Graham, Caitlyn Silcock, Monique Austin

SILVER - INT Quad: Amelia Kepa, Mila Graham, Caitlyn Silcock, Monique Austin

North Island Secondary Schools

GOLD - Nov 4x: Amelia Kepa, Mila Graham, Abigail Hampton, Monique Austin + Mya Wilson (Coxswain)

GOLD - U15x: Amelia Kepa, Zoe Middlemiss, Mylove Bennion-Lindsay, Monique Austin + Reegan Isaac (Coxswain)

SILVER - U16 1x: Madeline Cox

SILVER - Nov 2x: Amelia Kepa, Mila Graham

SILVER - U15 8x: Pylat Paraha-Senior, Monique Austin, Zoe Middlemiss, Abigail Hampton, Caitlyn Silcock, Sophia Todd, Amelia Kepa, Mylove Bennion-Lindsay, Elliette Rolton, Paris Buchanan + Riviera Watts (Coxswain)

Aon Maadi Cup

GOLD - Nov 2x: Monique Austin, Mila Graham

GOLD - U18 4x: Gabrielle Austin, Mila Graham, Madeline Cox, Phoebe Barnes + Reegan Isaac (Coxswain)

Massive congratulations to all the girls. An all-round great season. Beyond excited for the next!

- Bronte Harcourt, Rowing Captain and Assistant Coach.