The round-up of Term One culminates in four of our summer sports teams travelling around the country to attend tournaments. Rowers up at Lake Karapiro, Tennis players in Auckland, Volleyballers in Palmerston North and Water Polo players here in Christchurch.

We are incredibly grateful that this year, we are able to carry on with business as usual. It has been a nail-biting few weeks as our athletes have maintained their cool and continued to train as normal. It is so exciting that all their hard work is literally being put into practice right now. A full round-up of tournament week will be reported in the next newsletter. In the meantime, we wish them all the very best of luck.

As this newsletter goes to print MAADI will be in the last stages. Semi-finals and finals will be live-streamed on Sky sport on Thursday and Friday this week.

https://livestream.com/i-filmsport

For those who would like to follow MAADI 2021 results for SMC, here is the link for the ROWIT SMC page.

http://rowit.nz/mads2021/results?cn=stmg

Athletics

The following athletes represented SMC in the Canterbury Secondary Schools Athletic Championships out at Nga Puna Wai on a freezing cold easterly day. Although the wind is usually chilly over there it doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of our girls. As you can see from the photos a good red SMC blanket is always on hand.

Shylah Bateman - U15 - 200m
Lily Cockram - U19 - 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m
Sophie Booth - U14 - 400m, 4 x 100m
Margo Dalling - U14 - 800m, 4 x 100m
Lucy Botherway - U14 - 80m Hurdles
Lulu Inglis - U14 - 400m, 1500m, 4 x 100m
Sam Lascelles - U15 - 400m, 800m, Long Jump, U19 4 x 100m
Charlotte Prebble - U19 - Discus, Shot Put
Qiana Selan - U14 - Javelin, Shot Put
Charlotte Sweney - U15 - Shot Put
Ella McDonald - U19 - 1500m
Alex Rees-Thomas - U16 - 400m, U19 4 x 100m
Lily Young - U14 4 x 100m
Georgia Buchan - U19 4 x 100m

Congratulations and good luck to these athletes below who will go on to represent SMC at the South Island Secondary Schools Athletic Championships in April.

U14 1500m Lulu Inglis 3rd
U15 400m Samantha Lascelles 2nd
U15 800m Samantha Lascelles 1st
U16 400m Alex Rees-Thomas 3rd
U19 100m Lily Cockram 2nd
U19 200m Lily Cockram 2nd
4x100m U19 Relay 2nd - Lily Cockram, Samantha Lascelles, Alex Ree-Thomas, Georgia Buchan
U15 Javelin Qiana Selan 3rd

Lily Cockram, Captain of Athletics writes; “After another successful SMC Athletics day, the top-performing girls had the opportunity to compete in the Canterbury Secondary Schools Athletics Competition. A group of SMC athletes competed at Nga Puna Wai in this competition last week. Girls ran, jumped, threw and had a successful day down at the track. Tuesday was the heats and Saturday was finals. Even though the weather conditions were not in our favour the girls still performed well with 23 girls making it through to finals day on Saturday. Some events were straight finals, others you had to qualify to make it in the final, so making it through to those final events is something the girls should be very proud of.

We were also able to put through 5 relay teams. An under 14, under 15 and under 19 4x100m plus an A and B team for the 4x400m. These relay teams all did really well and the girls should be happy with how they performed. Congratulations to the SMC medalists who placed in the top three, in their events. Lulu Inglis 3rd in the 800m U14, Samantha Lascelles 2nd in the 400m U15 and 1st in the 800m, Alex Rees-Thomas 3rd in the U16 400m, Qiana Selan 3rd in the U14 javelin and Lily Cockram placed 2nd in the U19 200m and 100m. A huge well done to everyone else who competed. It is a great effort to even make it to Canterburys so you should all be proud of yourselves and what you have achieved.

What is next for our SMC athletes? We have 14 girls qualified to compete in the Secondary Schools South Islands Competition on the 9th and 10th of April. These girls are Shylah Bateman, Sophie Booth, Margo Dalling, Lucy Botherway, Lulu Inglis, Sam Lascelles, Charlotte Prebble, Qiana Selan, Charlotte Sweney, Ella McDonald, Lily Cockram, Alex Rees-Thomas, Lily Young and Georgia Buchan. The competition is in Christchurch so if you're in Christchurch at the end of the first week of the holidays we would love for you to come down and support us! It is awesome to see so many new girls coming through in the sport, keep going and I hope to see you again out on the track or in the field. Last but not least I would like to thank Sharon Lloyd for her time, effort and positivity towards the sport, thank you for always encouraging us and making sure we are at our events on time, I don’t know where we would be without you, I would also like to thank Helen Belcher for coming along on Saturday to show her support to the SMC athletics team.” 

Athletics Day
Another huge day on our sporting calendar is Athletics Day. Abby Mason writes; “Athletics Day 2021 can confidently be summed up as a huge success! The House Spirit was incredible, a huge credit to the six house leaders who ensured every girl was involved and having fun. As Heads of Sport this year, our goal was to create a more balanced mix of competitive and non-competitive opportunities for everyone. Whether Athletics Day is a big chance for you to show off your awesome athletic ability, or maybe just a day for you to try some new events with your friends, we were thrilled that everyone was getting involved and challenging themselves in a range of events. A highlight for everyone was the relays that concluded the day, in particular the students vs teachers which was up for contention right until the finish line, in the end, taken out by the year 13 students. Special thank you to the Sport Department and our staff who helped the day run so smoothly.” 

results from the day are on a pdf table below.

Archery
“The popularity of Archery has skyrocketed this year and the numbers who applied had to be trimmed to 16 enthusiastic students! Each Wednesday for 6 weeks in Term 1 the students attend the Christchurch Archery Club at Rawhiti Domain in New Brighton, fine weather or rain, if this Wednesday was anything to go by. The first day of attendance had the students fitted out with bows, arrows and special equipment to suit left or right-handedness and whether they have a dominant left or right eye. The students have the responsibility of remembering which 'named' bow and 'coloured' arrows are theirs to use in the following weeks. The experienced archery coaches put them through their paces of how to stand, shoot, retrieve their arrows and score with great emphasis on safety. The students will agree it is great fun and a good experience for all.” Thank you to Kathryn Coakley, the teacher in charge of coordinating these 16 enthusiastic students.

Cricket
SMC CRICKET - post-tournament reports from Amanda Hardy. A huge congratulations to all of our SMC cricket girls. We have participated in 4 competitions this season and all teams have performed credibly and have SMC Cricket on the radar of schools throughout Canterbury. Our 1st XI girls finished a super close second in their pool behind Rangi Ruru in the Gillette/Venus Cup Tournament. SMC had wins against Cashmere High School, Forward Foundation XI and Ellesmere College and a washed-out game against STAC. There were many fabulous performances during the tournament including an unbroken 100* run 4th wicket partnership between Phoebe Spear (41*) and Paris Hague (38*) to win the match by 7 wickets against the Forward Foundation XI. Strong contributions with the bat by Captain Niamh McKenzie, Phoebe Spear and Millie Spear were notable, as were performances with the ball by Lily Young, Isla Gath and Frankie Jack who were our leading wicket-takers.
Congratulations girls on a fantastic two days of cricket. A huge thank you to Richard Lough for his coaching expertise and knowledge to guide and support the girls as they prepared for the tournament and as they played throughout the tournament. We are so grateful for your time and effort to help us on our cricketing journey. Another big thank you to Mr Wyeth for being our team umpire and officiating all of our games during the tournament. We also had lots of support from the boundary. It was great to see Mrs Wyeth again and it was a real treat when Old Girl Amy Satterthwaite came and watched us play!!

Another fantastic result from our Forward Foundation 2nd XI girls who have won for the third year running the Forward Foundation Shield. The improvement shown by these girls during the past two seasons has been fantastic and it was awesome watching the girls enjoy their cricket. The girls played Burnside HS in the final and beat them by a whopping 92 runs!!! Your consistent line and length bowling and great strike hitting when batting set you up for the victory. A shout out to Izzy Brooks for her amazing boundary hitting!!!

Our Y7/8 girls participated in the NZ Girls Shield tournament and again produced some fabulous results. For many, this is their first time playing hardball cricket and they absolutely got stuck in and were fearless!! The girls showed fantastic improvement in each game and they did have some tough ones along the way. Congratulations to Lucy Butterfield who scored her first 50* against Christchurch South. What an innings that was Lucy, well done!! A huge thank you to Miss Englebretsen, Mrs Baker-Sherman, Libby Stead, Miss Beatson and Matt Butterfield for their coaching, managing and umpiring in the lead-up and during the tournament!! We couldn’t have done it without you all!!

Our Y5/6 girls have been toiling away and have now had 2 wins in their Friday Superstars Competition. It has been absolutely fantastic watching these girls grow in confidence each week and all their efforts at training are paying off. The girls’ final game is this Friday!! A huge thank you to Mrs O’Callaghan for her energy, time and effort to help organise this team and to Niamh, Bella, Phoebe, Tayla and Lily for coaching the girls and supporting them at their Friday games!!! It has been awesome watching the big sister little sister relationship in full swing!!

As our season/term of cricket is coming to an end with the holidays fast approaching I extend a huge thank you to all of our coaches, managers and parent/family supporters for being on the boundary supporting our girls in their cricket journey. Watching the girls improve their skills each week but more importantly have fun and love what they are doing has been awesome!!
Another BIG thank you to Mr Marra and Mr Carroll for being our fabulous SMC Oval groundsman. It has been an absolute treat playing at SMC and what a picture Friday lunchtime is, with our Y5/6 girls playing their game and our Y1-4 budding cricketers' training on the turf! #MAGIC To end the term in style our 1st XI girls are taking on an SMC Staff XI on the last day of Term - Thursday 1st April at our very SMC Oval!! Come on down and support the girls or the staff!!

Croquet
On Wednesday afternoons from 3 to 4 pm, a group of SMC students from years 11 and 13 walk down to the United Croquet Club in Hagley Park to learn how to play croquet. Claire Horncastle and Philippa Porter - who is an SMC old girl - have kindly given up their time to help us develop our skill-set over the past few weeks. So far, we have had 4 lessons at United Croquet Club and hope to have a couple more before the end of the term (weather permitting). In these lessons, we have learnt the rules of Golf Croquet, as well as how to line-up the ball, how to adjust the amount of power going into a shot and how to strategize during a game. We’ll be having a mini Croquet tournament against players from Rangi Ruru on the 31st of March, which will be a fun way to test out the skills we have learnt so far!

Present in the picture below (from left to right): Laura Fairbrass (Year 11), Mayuko Oda (Year 11), Philippa Porter (Instructor), Isa Chang (Year 11), Heather Laing (Year 13), Claire Horncastle (Instructor), Yani Rutherford (Year 13), Petra Lewis (Year 11)
Players absent: Molly Campbell (Year 13), Rosie Lester (Year 13)

Equestrian
Millie Harris has been busy this Summer. Sadly, this is her last season of riding at shows as she moves on to other ventures. Millie writes; “On the 21st of February I went up to compete at the Murchison A&P show with my pony Bellagio KV (Bolty). We came home with; Champion led pony, Champion ridden saddle hunter pony, Champion junior rider, Overall riding pony society sash winner, Supreme pony

This was my first Supreme on Bolty so it was very exciting but it was one of my last shows on him as he's sold to the North Island. In the past few weekends, I have been all over the South Island competing. I have been to Palmerston, Reefton, Mayfield, Kirwee and Cheviot. At all of these shows, I have come home with Champions and Reserve Champions with the 2 ponies I have been lucky enough to ride for my last season on ponies.”
Well done Millie, great work.  

Golf
Kathryn Gray our teacher in charge of Golf has a small but committed team, Lucie Dean, Hazel Hanrahan and Ann Shen, who each week work on their skills and drills. They are enjoying learning something new.

Indoor Netball
We have had one dedicated Indoor Netball team playing this term, Charlotte Sweney writes; “This term the SMC Indoor Netball Team has enjoyed playing netball on a Wednesday afternoon. Lots of laughs and smiles can be seen when the girls take the court. For some of the girls, this will be their second term playing Indoor Netball as a team was entered in Term 4 last year. The team always tries its best and has fun while playing. A thank you is needed to our manager Craig Smith, for turning up to every game and supporting us. With games coming to a close, everyone looks forward to playing again in term 4.”

Netball
We were lucky enough to have the Tactix players here at SMC last week. A Year 7 PE class got to train alongside the Tactix players. Evie Meyer and Georgia Reed, two of our netball captains were also fortunate to be able to join in with the younger players demonstrating our big sister, little sister ethos. It was great to receive some valuable coaching tips from the Tactix players and we thank them for their time.

SKEET
We have an exciting new Sport here at SMC. Teacher in charge Mr Clarke writes, “Skeet shooting has taken off at SMC! 10 girls were expertly hosted by Sheryl at the Canterbury Clay Target Club for Trap shooting. Sheryl was as eager as Mr Clarke for a successful launch and brought her own 12 bore shotguns and even her lovely dad to fire up the activity. With an age range from Year 9 through to Year 13, there was an excellent atmosphere and shouts of disbelief as the girls downed clay after clay. No one gave the final America’s Cup race a single thought….well, perhaps one or two. But rest assured, this is just the beginning of a new tradition for the school and we look forward to receiving Sheryl’s excellent coaching and heaps of fun.” 

Swimming
A couple of weeks ago we had the South Island Swim Championships attended by some of our SMC swimmers.

Sienna McEwan Y12 writes; “At the South Island Long Course Championships the other week I came second place winning Silver in 50m Breaststroke and 50m Backstroke. I have been swimming competitively since I was 12 years old, and my favourite events are the 50m and 100m breaststroke. My weekly training schedule consists of six or seven 1.5 - 2 hour pool sessions and two or three gym sessions. Some of my best performances include a South Island Short course title in the 50m breaststroke in 2019 (I also came 2nd place in the 100m breaststroke at the same meet), 4th place at NZ Short Course Championships 2020 in 50m and 100m breaststroke and many Canterbury titles. A goal I have this year is to win a national medal.”

Gracie Seeto Y12 writes; “At the South Islands Swim Champs I was involved in the 100m Free, 50m Free, 50m Breast, 50m Back, 200 IM and 200 Breast. I pulled out some decent PB's in the 100m Free, 50 back and 200 IM which is promising for the start of the year. Unfortunately, the last day of racing was cancelled due to us moving into level 2 but despite this, I was able to have a good meet, which I was stoked about. I've been competitively swimming for around 8 years and currently am training at least 6 times a week. The swimming year was very disrupted during last year, so all fingers are crossed for a promising one this year. I am working towards achieving my short course national qualifying times which is due to happen in August.”

Alice Jeffries Y6 has been busy over the summer both with Water Polo and Swimming events. Alice played for Canterbury U14 at the NZ Waterpolo Div2 Nationals in December 2020. This was a great opportunity to develop her Waterpolo further, acknowledging that she was Year 5 competing against children up to Year 9! In late January she swam at the 2021 Swimming Canterbury West Coast Development Championships securing 5 silvers! This was followed by the Swimming New Zealand Junior Festival in Dunedin where she secured two 3rd's and a top 8 placing across the remaining 5 individual events and club relay - a remarkable achievement! Alice was awarded the Most Improved Player for U12 at Canterbury Water Polo prizegiving last week. It seems there is no stopping this water baby. Great job Alice.

Our Swimmers have had such fun in the pool at the Senior swimming sports, Junior Swimming sports and the Years 1-3 Carnival. We have already published some fabulous photos and now we can publish the results. A huge thank you to our amazing team in the Sport Department who coordinate all these events. The pdf results tables are available below. 

Swimming Zones were held at the beginning of March with the following results;
Alice Jefferies Year 6: 1st Breaststroke, 2nd Freestyle
Sienna Choat Year 7: 1st Freestyle, 1st Backstroke
Neave Ackroyd Year 7: 2nd Breaststroke
Year 6 Relay combined with Medbury: 1st Alice Jefferies & Alexandra Campbell

The results mean that these swimmers will go on to represent St Margaret’s at the Canterbury Primary Schools Swimming Championships on the 8th of April in the holidays. We wish them luck.

Swimming Carnival
Year 1-3
“The most important Sports event on St Margaret’s College sporting calendar took place this week. If you thought the America’s Cup win was spectacular, you should have been at our Swimming Showcase! The enthusiasm from the spectators, the sporting pride of achievements from the girls and the streamlining of the event organisation from Wendy Shannahan, Sharon Lloyd, Paula Vesty and Bindy O'Callaghan made it just as enjoyable as any sporting event! The highlight was seeing all the girls in Year 1 - 3 enjoy showing their swimming skills to everyone. I am positive that in a few years time, we will see Red Blazers awarded for top swimming on quite a few of our Junior School girls!” Julie Calder Head of Junior school.

Tennis
SISS Tennis Timaru
It was the weather this time during the last weekend of February that caused Tennis to be called off, not Covid. Day one of the South Island Secondary Schools Tennis in Timaru saw our SMC team have a commendable win over Rangi 6-0 and another awesome triumph against STAC 5-1. Abby Mason, Ruby Young, Emma Mason, Georgia Hague, Victoria de Costobadie and our cup team of Christina Vassilieva, Georgia Marchant and Jessica England were all in Timaru.

Touch

We are ‘ Super’ proud to say that our Super Touch team won the weekly competition. The final was against Burnside and we won 2-0. Congratulations.

South Island Secondary Schools Touch Tournament
Georgia Reed our Super Touch Captain writes; “In the weekend the SMC Super Touch team attended SISS in Christchurch. This was the target we have been training for all season, and it was exciting to go into the tournament with confidence from our Super Touch final win last Wednesday. We had a great start to the day playing Christchurch Girls High and having a convincing win 4-1. We then came up against a strong and well-drilled St Hilda's team in which we, unfortunately, went down 10-2. From there we gathered ourselves together to play Timaru Girls, winning 8-1. The last game of the day was tough, having already played 3 games, everyone was feeling a little bit fatigued. We played Southland Girls but were unable to find our rhythm, going down 0-7. Sunday morning consisted of our last pool game, coming up against Marlborough Girls, and after a slow start, we were unable to convert our opportunities and resulted in going down 3-8. This placed us in the playoff from 5th-8th. Our second to last game was against Burnside which was a hard-fought game, and we were up for most of it until they scored in the last couple of minutes. This sent us into a drop-off where we started with the ball and were able to score off our first attack. This called for a big defensive set, which we were able to do and kept Burnside out and won the game. This meant we would face Marlborough Girls again in the 5th/6th playoff. This time we were not going down without a fight and had an incredible start, being up by 2 at halftime. Being our 7th game of the weekend it was going to be a hard last 15 minutes, but we dug deep and were able to hold onto our lead and finished the game 6-5 up. It was a great weekend with lots of improvement and awesome to see the confidence build in the team over the two days. A big thank you to Ella and Miss Beaumont for the time and effort they have put into our team with the season, it is greatly appreciated. Also a huge thank you to all the parents and supporters for giving up their time to support the girls and backing us over this term.”

Year 7/8 Touch
Red Team
On Friday afternoon the red team played against a strong Rangi Ruru side, managing to just pull away with a win on the final hooter overcoming Rangi 2-1. The girls played a great game with a lot of fight and spirit, while also recognising the things we still need to work on. The great teamwork and communication between the girls allowed them to discuss greater issues happening on the field and how to solve them. This strong-willed and positive mindset allowed us to play to the best of our abilities and therefore earned us that win! By Cara Mustchin

White Team
The white team played really well on Friday coming away with a 4-3 win. The girls had amazing enthusiasm and played really well. The girls scored three amazing runaway tries and were getting and breaking through the defensive line quite regularly. The girls have made massive improvement throughout the season and are continuing to improve weekly and it is definitely showing in their games. The games are exciting to watch and they all seem to be really enjoying themselves and the sport. By Maddy McNeill

Blue Team
The girls had a great game last Friday. They played the Selwyn House girls team, with a score of 1-0 to Selwyn House, an unfortunate loss as they were having a winning streak. It was a really close game; they only just scored the try in the last half, but the girls definitely did not give up; they pushed until the very end showing great determination. Emma Whitaker was awarded player of the day because she made some really great touches and prevented a lot of tries from being scored from the opposition by doing lots of chasing. It was hard to determine the player of the day for this game as all the girls played extremely well and utilised their skills in the game. By Lily Cockram

Volleyball
Mainland Volleyball
Covid played havoc with Volleyball a few weeks ago, stopping supporters from going to watch the games at the South Island Championships. Paula Vesty writes; “Covid restrictions that weekend meant that we couldn't go and support our amazing Volleyball players in the South Island Championships, but we have two videos of the final. (which you can watch on our Facebook page). Burnside had to work hard to win and we are proud of the SMC girls taking the first set of the match 30-28. Many hours of hard work often go into creating masterpieces and these girls are doing the mahi. Well done SMC.”

Congratulations to Ella Ballantyne and Rosa Davidson (both Y13) who have been named in the New Zealand U19 Beach Volleyball squad. The girls will attend a training camp in Auckland at the end of April and (fingers crossed) join a tour of Australia and Vanuatu in December. Well done girls, great work.

Ella Ballantyne describes how the Canterbury Championships played out, for the Senior A team. “The SMC Senior A Volleyball team had a successful weekend at the Canterbury Senior Championships last weekend (12-14th March). We went into the tournament seeded third and after a strong two days of pool play, we made the semi-finals without dropping a set. We beat CGHS in the semi which put us in the final against Burnside, who has been our toughest competition throughout the season. After a tight battle from both sides, we lost the final 3-1. Despite the loss, it was a great game and we are feeling positive about nationals in Palmerston North. As well as coming away with the silver medal, 4 SMC players, Annabelle Goodwin, Emily O’Connor, Rosa Davidson and Ella Ballantyne also made the tournament team.”

Water Polo
Our A Water Polo girls were pretty proud of their new Water Polo caps. These photos were taken the first time they had an outing. The game ended up being a 9 all draw against Rangi Ruru.

Wanaka Challenge 2021
Our very own Super Star Amanda Hardy completed this challenge, breaking one of her own team records. She writes; “A fabulous event in one of the most stunning parts of NZ. I loved every minute of my run as my team broke the 6 hour mark for our team Half Ironman. The location of this event is magic, the conditions were challenging with 30 + degree temperatures but it made crossing the finish line even more sweeter!! Bring on 2022…..”