This newsletter seems to cover a wide range of the alphabet from Archery to Volleyball. It is good to see a few events have actually managed to go ahead recently after their previous respective postponements and our SMC girls have enjoyed some fantastic results.

As the school campus becomes quieter due to study leave, it definitely doesn’t mean that our Sports Office is any quieter. Term 4 seems to be one of the busiest times for our Sports staff. We look forward to our Sports Awards and bringing you all the news and results. As always please email us with any sports news you may have; louise.eder@stmargarets.school.nz 

Archery
Archery is back. Last week we had an enthusiastic group of girls take up Archery. This involves a lot of skill and the girls really enjoyed having a go. There were a few reports of some sore biceps the next day as it is not easy holding the bow for a long period of time. It looks like there were some pretty accurate arrows judging by the photos courtesy of Sharon Lloyd.

Athletics YNE-8
“The New Entrant to Year 8 Athletics Day was held last Tuesday 20th October. Year 7 and 8 girls participated in the morning, with New Entrants to Year 6 girls participating in the afternoon. It was a great day with some patchy clouds and cool to mild temperatures fluctuating throughout the day. The Preschool made an appearance with some great tabloids and running races. It was great to see all the girls participating in and celebrating each others’ successes. A big thank you to all the parents who came to support their daughter on this day, and lastly, a big thank you to Sharon Lloyd for her amazing organisational skills.” Bindy O’Callaghan

A full list of the results from Athletics Day is attached below.

Duathlon CPS
“The Canterbury Primary Schools Duathlon was held at Ruapuna Raceway on Monday 19th October. This is an event for Year 5 - 8 children. The girls were expected to run 2km, bike 6km or 9km (depending on their year level) and then run a further 1km to the finish line. The 12 girls who participated did a great job. Notable placings included:

Sophie Maxwell Y8 - 4th
Sophie Booth Y8 -5th
Gemma Sitjes Y8 - 10th
Charlotte Maxwell Y6 - 10th

All girls had a great day and enjoyed their experience.” Bindy O’Callaghan

Figure Skating
We have a Y7 superstar amongst us. Tina Xu came first at the Figure Skating South Island Championship in Gore in the U12 elementary class. Awesome job Tina.

Gymnastics
Lexie Boon has an exciting update on a recent competition she attended. The Super Series is a competition that ran instead of Nationals for the senior gymnasts, where points were analysed over all the competitions that were able to be held post COVID to get South Island and National winners. Lexie is not a senior yet but was asked to join a group with the older gymnasts. We are pleased to report Lexie’s group got 3rd in the South Island and 4th in New Zealand!!! This is incredible as the scores were calculated against ALL AGES/STAGES- and even with the International gymnasts and current NZ reps who are mid-late teens!

Swimming
Our swimmers have recently had two exciting meets to attend. Jill Perriam writes; “Maisy Perriam, Sienna McEwan, Grace Seeto and Cara Birch recently competed at the NZ Secondary Schools Champs held in Hamilton where over 600 swimmers took part. They represented St Margaret’s in both relays and individual events. It was a huge week for the girls as they had only just competed in the NZ Short Course Champs the week before. They backed up amazingly with all the girls getting some personal best times. Congratulations to Maisy who finished 6th in the 200m butterfly and 8th in the 400 free and Sienna who finished 7th in the 50 breaststroke finals in the NZSS champs.”

Ella Frazer our swimming captain gives us her perspective on swimming so far this year, she writes; “This year swimming, like all sports, has had its challenges but we have overcome the challenges and shown what it is really like to persevere through this tough time. Although there haven't been as many swimming competitions to date, there have still been some opportunities this year to compete at top levels. Maisy Perriam, Gracie Seeto, Sienna McEwan and Cara Birch, went away to compete at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Swimming Championships and have come out with a great result, gaining the school a place in the top 100 secondary schools. Along with NZSS, there was another major swim competition which was the NZ Short Course Swimming Championships, held in Hamilton in the last week of the holidays. Sienna McEwan, Bridie Finch, Maisy Perriam and Gracie Seeto all competed in this competition. Congratulations to Sienna McEwan, 4th in 15 years 50M Breaststroke and 4th in 15 years 100M Breaststroke and to those who got PB’s. Good job”

Last Thursday the Canterbury Primary Schools swimming was finally able to be held. This had been postponed due to COVID. It was held at the Aquatic Centre in Rolleston and all schools from the Canterbury district were able to attend. St Margaret’s had a fabulous team of swimmers with lots of finals ending in some amazing results as follows;

Year 5 mixed relay with Medbury: 3rd (Alice Jefferies & Alex Campbell)
Year 6 mixed relay with Medbury: 4rd (Charlotte Maxwell & Sienna Choat)
Year 5 50m Freestyle - 3rd Alice Jefferies
Year 5 50m Breaststroke - 5th Alice Jefferies
Year 6 50m Freestyle - 6th Sienna Choat
Year 6 50m Backstroke - 6th Sienna Choat
Year 6 50m Breaststroke - 5th Charlotte Maxwell
Year 7 50m Butterfly - 7th Isabella Wilson

Congratulations to all of our brilliant swimmers.

Water Polo
Josie Persico our Water Polo captain updates us on Water Polo for Term 4. She writes; “Term 4 has two SMC Junior teams (8 girls in each team ). We are lucky to have Casie Bowry as our Head coach and the teams are playing in the CSS competition on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The A team won their first game and had a narrow loss last week to Rangi, the B team won their first game and lost their second game. With lots of potential in the squad, it will be an exciting few weeks to follow and see their progress.”

A huge congratulations to many of our swimmers who are in Water Polo Representative teams for Canterbury. These four girls especially are very busy with Water Polo amongst other things, Josie Persico, Georgia Reed, Emma McClure and Ella Frazer. They are in the Canterbury U18 team and the Canterbury Senior Women's Team. We also have two old girls in the senior team, Tiana Placid and Annabel Norris.

“The Canterbury U18 Waterpolo team placed 3rd at the U18 National Waterpolo Championships in the holidays which were held in Christchurch for the first time since the earthquakes. We ended up winning against Marist in the bronze medal match. The girls in the team from SMC are Georgia Reed, Emma McClure, Jemma Burrows, Ella Frazer and myself who was captain. We all missed out on playing for SMC earlier in the season at SISS and NZSS so it was a great way to finish the season!” Josie Persico

“We just recently got back from the National Senior Women's Water Polo Championships held in Auckland. Canterbury sent up CWP's first Senior Women's team which was a similar young squad to that of the U18 Nationals with a few extra senior women including two SMC Old Girls Tiana Placid and Annabel Norris along with Georgia Reed, Emma McClure, Ella Frazer and myself. We won our last game against Mountford which placed us 5th. This was a huge success considering the inexperience in our squad.” Josie Persico

The Canterbury U16A girls placed 5th in Div1 in Rotorua. We had Emma McClure, Isla Gath, Jemma Burrowes and Eve Barnsley in this team.
The Canterbury U16B girls placed 8th in Div2 in Wellington. Victoria de Costobadie and Isla Gath are a part of this team.

U12 girls 1st
Due to Covid-19, Canterbury and Marlborough held their own Water Polo Tournament in Blenheim a couple of weekends ago. Alice Jeffries who was named in the U12 Canterbury Olympic Hopefuls Team was due to play in Auckland. However, the second wave in Auckland meant the tournament couldn’t go ahead up there. She played in the U12’s, winning this section. They then had games against the U14’s and Opens. It was a great experience and a fabulous tournament for all those involved. The next competition, the Intermediate Y7 and 8 South Island Water Polo Championships is this weekend in Dunedin which we wish them luck for.

Also, good luck to our SMC girls, Charlotte Coughlan and Claudia Hundleby in the Canterbury U14 A girls team and Aneira Salt and Brooke Mullinger in the Canterbury U14 B girls team, who are playing their competitions in December.

Volleyball
“Like many codes, Volleyball missed two of their pinnacle events for 2020. These were Canterbury Senior Championships and the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships.
In a bid to give our Year 13 athletes a chance to compete and finish out their school Volleyball, Canterbury Senior Championships was rescheduled to last weekend, Labour Weekend.
It was a hot three days at Pioneer Stadium and the competition was sizzling. Our girls did fabulously well, losing their semi-final match in close competition with STAC and finishing third overall. We had 3-0 wins over Cashmere, CGHS, Rangi Ruru, and Burnside High B. Two of our athletes were named in the tournament team of 10 - Rosa Davidson and Ella Ballantyne. Well done everyone.

We honour our five year 13 students - Grace Mains, Frankie Molnar, Olivia Parker, Courtney Anderson and Mackenzie Haycock who have been outstanding ambassadors for the programme. Thank you, girls, for your time, commitment and passion.
Thank you to the coaches who have also been part of the development of all these players.” Paula Vesty