We are well underway with our Term 2 winter sporting codes. The switch from summer sport to winter sport is always an interesting one, as girls decide which sports to play and how many they can juggle.

Having just got the hang of Term 1 and all the respective trainings and coachings that make up the routine of the summer, it is time to change. New routines have to be made as clashes with trainings have to be worked out. Just scheduling the gym to fit everyone in always proves to be a mammoth task. Hopefully, by now the Term 2 routine for sport has become your new norm.
Enjoy your chosen sport or sports and have a fantastic season. As always please let us know what you are up to as we love to write about all your sporting adventures.

AFL
In the NZ WAFL Premiership a few weekends ago, Mia was one of two players awarded BOG - Best On Ground for her efforts in Auckland.
Similarly, the weekend after, Mia was again one of two players awarded BOG - Best On Ground representing NZ Kahu Youth Girls against the Australians from the MPJFL. Congratulations Mia, keep up the good work.

Cross Country
After a freezing cold and blustery day, thankfully the following day was the total opposite. Blue skies and sunshine were the order of the day as SMC took over North Hagley Park, for our annual Cross Country. It is lovely to see from the photos how our girls helped each other over the finish line. As always there was the option of a fun run in mufti, or a longer more competitive run, enabling some of our girls to go through to Zones and Canterbury Secondary Schools. Thanks to all of the supporters for coming along and well done to every girl - there was so much teamwork and encouragement shown by all!! 

Basketball
All 21 of our basketball teams have now played their first games and the competition is well underway. It is exciting to announce this is the largest year for Basketball and we even have a year 5/6 team competing for the first time, (see photos). We have had some great feedback from parents and schools saying how well our girls represent St Margaret’s, which is always a pleasure to hear. Well done girls. Keep up the good work.

Cycling
Jenna Borthwick has been keeping up her good work recently, as she raced in the U17 Girls Road Event at Nationals. She successfully competed in two events;
15km Individual Time Trial, coming 2nd,
62km Road Race coming 4th.
Jenna has been selected to represent New Zealand at the Oceania Track Championships in Invercargill in October. This time she will be competing in the U19 girls. We wish you all the best for your next event, Jenna.
Watch out for more cycling news this year as St Margaret's has a really strong cycling team, Jenna writes,’ it’s pretty exciting to have a proper team this year. We will be racing every Wednesday at the Christchurch Schools Competition out at Tai Tapu. We’re also going to be competing at the South Island Secondary School Champs and are hoping to get some good results.’ We wish all our cyclists well for their future competitions.

Equestrian
Horses and ponies play a big part in the lives of many of our St Margaret’s girls and it is lovely to see them all doing so well. The effort behind the scenes is huge, as is the early mornings before competitions. But as you can see from the photos, the hard work has paid off.
We are pleased to report that Millie Harris Y11, has had an awesome end to the season with many wins but highlights would definitely be Supreme Pony and Champion Rider at Cheviot A and P.
She was incredibly honoured to be riding for New Zealand the other week at the Grand Nationals in Sydney which is Australia’s biggest show. Although she didn’t place in a huge class of over 30 riders, she rode so well only having had one ride the day before! She did a perfect workout and the owners of the pony were very happy and have even invited her back to ride anytime and again to ride at Grand Nationals next year.
She also won Reserve Champion in the New Zealand Show horse competition, getting the 2nd highest points in the Open Pony section as well as the 2nd highest points Over All Sections!! Which is another fantastic achievement!
Now it’s time to give the ponies a few weeks off before trying some dressage! Phew awesome work Millie, enjoy the wee break you and the ponies deserve.
In other Equestrian news, Tess Morgan and her pony Awatuna Fox Trot were placed 3rd in the Under 21, 95cm, South Island One Day Champs and 3rd in the Eventing Canterbury Series. Congratulations Tess.
Fabriana McQuarrie is another one of our successful riders. Fabriana, Y9 and her pony, Yippee Ki Yay, have had a busy time competing. Yippee Ki Yay has proven himself across the board. The pair won reserve Champion for dressage, before coming 2nd in the MT Trophy in Auckland at the NZPCA Eventing Champs. Fabriana and Sophie Thomas, also Year 9 were both in the Canterbury team that placed 3rd. Great to have this young talent coming through.

Awesome work.

Congratulations to Hannah Ferguson Y13, who attended the Miniature Horse Assn Nationals in March and placed 4th overall in the 13-18 years section.
Her two ponies "Sherwood Talk About Me" and " Blue Gables Monarchs Legacy" competed in the Jumping, Versatility and Trail sections to earn combined points.
Hannah was National champion in the Youth Harness Driving section with "Sherwood Talk About Me".
'Blue Gables Monarchs Legacy' was the Runner Up Supreme Performance Horse which is based on all results over all groups.
Hannah was also selected into a New Zealand Youth team who travelled to Australia in April to compete at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre at the Australia National Miniature Horse Show against the Australian Youth team.
We asked Hannah to tell us a bit more about how she got into the Miniature Horse Association, Hannah explains, ‘So last year I sent an application away to the New Zealand Miniature Horse Association (NZMHA) applying to be a part of the New Zealand Youth Team for 2019. To be able to apply you have had to have competed at two showcase shows for the season and competed at a national show. I also had an advantage as I had competed and shown with the team back in 2017 in Australia. I found out that I was accepted into the youth team along with the top 4 best competitors in the country during the summer holidays. In March I travelled to Taranaki to join and compete against the rest of New Zealand’s Youth, where I placed 4th Overall Youth, National Champion Overall for Youth Harness Driving and my horse was awarded runner up Supreme Performance horse for the National Show. Over the April holidays, the team and I travelled to the Sydney International Equestrian Centre to compete in Australia’s National Miniature Horse Show. We also competed against the Australian Youth Team in the Trans Tasman Youth Challenge. The challenge consisted of each member from each team drawing a random horse that they had never handled before and spending half an hour with it before competing with that horse in a Showmanship Class, Trail Class and a Hunter Jumping Class. The scores are then added up and the result of which team has won is announced at a prize-giving during the evening. So this year was very exciting as my team and I had managed to get the highest scores overall meaning that we had won the challenge, earning us a huge trophy, which was a nice way to end the show season.’
It all sounds very interesting, especially the challenge of using a horse that you don’t know and competing with it. Good work Hannah. 

Football
During the last holidays, Emily Lambie, Y10, was selected by Mainland Football (Canterbury) to be a part of the Federation Talent Centre Camp for football. She now belongs to the 16th grade girls training squad. Well done Emily and we look forward to hearing more from you soon.

Hockey
Congratulations to the following girls for their recent selections in hockey have a great season.
Canterbury U18 Regional - Sophie Calder, Anoushka Chiswell, Olivia Dyer, Olivia Paterson, Francesca Williamson
Canterbury U18 Association - Isabella House, Molly Leckie, Jordie Plunkett, Lucy Roberts, Issy Story, Pieta Surridge
During the holidays a group of 14 girls went up to St Cuthbert's College's annual ANZAC hockey tournament. Girls from year 10 to year 13, participated in the tournament. The team focus was 'Kaizen,’ the idea of continual improvement on both an individual and team scale.
On the day of arrival, Monday the 15th of April, we played Iona, the Federation Cup champions and came away with a successful win. We had two games on Tuesday, one against the host St Cuthbert's where we had a tight game and drew and later in the afternoon, we played against King's College, where we again had a very successful day. The Tuesday evening was the festival game, where Lucy Roberts and Pieta Surridge proudly represented St Margaret's. Playing two games on the last day against St Matthew's and Auckland Dio was challenging, but the girls played really well against St Matthew's and won. Unfortunately, we had a loss to the strong Auckland Dio side.
Overall the tournament was really successful and the girls that participated played with enthusiasm and grit as they battled for positions in our school 1st XI. A very big thank you to Sunjay Ganda and Wendy Shannahan for their time and energy into helping the girls improve their hockey and sharing their expertise. Also to Amanda Surridge for stepping in to help.
Iona: Won 5-1
St Cuthberts: Drew 1-1
King's College: Won 6-0
St Matthews: Won 5-2
Auckland Dio: Lost 1-3

Sports Honours
We have some new Red Blazers being proudly worn around the school. A huge congratulations go to the following girls,
Emily Barron - Swimming
Claudia Bethell -Rowing
Liyah Faga-ieti -Softball
Natashia Faga-ieti - Softball
Kate Harris - Rowing
Loveday Mossman-Catchpole - Volleyball
Lydia Munro - Water Skiing
Emma Roberts - Rowing

Helen Belcher explains;
Honours are our Top Sporting award. It is an understatement to say that every student who walks through our main gates aspires to wear the red blazer. It isn’t meant to be easy to gain the blazer. It isn’t about one particular game, race, or result. It is an accumulation of achievements at the highest level combined with a good level of Service to SMC sport.
All of the following recipients have made a huge commitment to the sport they love, to the sport they excel at and to the sport they have fun doing.
To quote an Old Girl who was our Sports Prefect in 2016, Lily Marshall reiterated that it is a privilege to represent your school in sport. Lily summed up her Sporting experience at SMC in 5 short statements:
Winning isn’t everything and success isn’t winning
The Importance of Mental Toughness
Enjoy it
Train hard, train some more then stop
Balance

Wise words from a then Year 13 student.

Kayaking
During the weekend of 11th/12th May, at Lake Karapiro, Pieta Luthi Y13, had some fantastic results. Pieta powered her way to five medals at the Asia Pacific Cup 2019. Absolutely awesome work Pieta, a huge well done from us all.
Gold
U18 K2 200m
U18 K4 200m
Silver
U18 K1 200m
U18 K2 500m
Bronze
U18 K4 500m

Korfball
Our SMC Korfball team placed 2nd in the Junior grade of the Term 1 Canterbury High School competition. Korfball is a mixed gender sport, meaning our girls were playing teams comprised of girls and boys each week, but they didn't let that stop them from learning heaps of new skills and strategies in this fast-paced game!!
A further congratulations to Evie Meyer, Cara Mustchin, Lily Gamble and Tayla Hardy who have been invited for the NZ U17 Development squad, as well as Josie Seymour for the Canterbury U15 Development squad. 

Swimming:
Canterbury Secondary Schools’ results:
Relays -Jemma Burrowes, Sienna McEwan, Emelia Surridge and Maisy Perriam – 1st Girls 14 200m Freestyle
Amelia Evans, Emma McClure, Holly Bridgman and Bridie Finch – 1st Girls 15 200m Freestyle
Rosie Averill, Josie Persico, Ella Frazer, Emily Barron - 2nd 16-18 yrs 200m Freestyle
Emily Barron, Rosie Averill, Maisy Perriam and Bridie Finch – 3rd Girls Open 200m Freestyle
Emily Barron, Sienna McEwan, Maisy Perriam and Bridie Finch – 2nd Girls Open 200m Medley
Individual results -
Emma Mason – 3rd 12-13 years 50m Backstroke
Maisy Perriam – 1st 14 years 50m Backstroke
Sienna McEwan – 2nd 14 years 50m Breaststroke, 2nd Open 100m Breaststroke
Bridie Finch – 1st 15 years 50m Freestyle, 3rd Open 200m Freestyle
Amelia Evans – 2nd 15years 50m Breaststroke
Emily Barron – 1st 16-18 years 50m Backstroke, 3rd Open 100m Backstroke

Netball
During the term 1 break, the Senior A and Year 10 A squads travelled to Wellington to compete in a pre-season tournament. Teams from all over Wellington attended and it was a strong, competitive tournament. It was an opportunity for both teams to have valuable court time to prepare for their 2019 season. It was a great way for both teams to work on combinations and team cohesion and to work on building a strong team unit both on and off the court. Hopefully, the experience we had in Wellington will prepare us for our year ahead and the experience will help us when we hopefully meet the North Island teams again later in the year. It was great for the Year 10 squad to experience the North Island competition as well, and hopefully take this experience into their 2019 season.

Lina Pale Year 13, Captain

Polo
Skye Turner, Y12 and the NZ Schools team had a great week in Richmond, Sydney, during the holidays. They had 4 games and lessons with top instructors. Unfortunately, they lost all their games though they were close and well matched. They made long lasting friendships and lots of great contacts.
Skye explains,’My NZ polo tour the other week in Richmond, Australia was a huge success.
For the first two days, we had coaching from a professional coach from Queensland who came up for a few days. We had 3 games and a test match. It was a massive learning curve and great riding experience, especially getting to ride completely different horses. Seeing their massive polo farms and fields was amazing. I feel very privileged and proud that I was able to represent my country in a professional manner.’

Softball
SMC Softball Superstar - Trinity Mackley-Flutey (Y10) has been selected for the New Zealand U15 team and will compete in Brisbane, Australia in July at the International Friendship tournament in Queensland. Congratulations Trinity - smashing it!!! 

Tennis
Abby Mason travelled to Bangkok as part of the NZ Junior Fed Cup team. The team ended up 9th, with Abby playing some good tennis in very challenging (40 deg plus) temperatures.

She made quarterfinals in the Malaysian ITF and will have improved her ranking by around 500-600 places. It was just as hot in Malaysia with humidity being a little less. Quite a contrast to our tennis weather here.
Well done Abby, you have played exceptional tennis this season, as well as offering your expertise and time with our young players. Thank you.

Volleyball
A big congratulations to three of our Volleyball girls.
Loveday Mossman-Catchpole Y13 has been selected into Canterbury U19.
Ella Ballantyne Y11 & Rosa Davidson Y11 have both been selected into Canterbury U17.
They will play at Queen’s Birthday weekend in the Interprovincial Championships in Wellington and we wish them well.
Ella Ballantyne, has also been selected into both the New Zealand U17 Indoor Volleyball team and the New Zealand U17 Beach Volleyball team.
We have a NZ Volleyball rep. amongst us!! Congratulations Ella, great work, hope your passport is up to date.

Water Polo
Water Polo has had a successful and enjoyable season, culminating in the Senior A team travelling to Auckland in the holidays. Thank you to Jane Sharman who accompanied the team and to the parent helpers and supporters
‘St Margaret’s Water Polo finished on a great note this season! In the holidays, the Senior A team flew up to Auckland to compete in the NZSS, Division One National Tournament. These girls played extremely well coming away with numerous wins, as well as learning from their losses. Overall they placed a very commendable 10th place in New Zealand. Senior A also attended South Islands in Christchurch where they placed first in a final against Rangi Ruru earlier on in the term. Overall, a great season for St Margaret’s water polo in 2019’. Hannah Price Year 13, Captain.

Water Skiing
Emily Milner Y11 has had a very busy and exciting time with her Water Skiing as you can see from the amazing photos.
Ozkiwi
Emily competed at the Ozkiwi Challenge during the holidays and was 3rd overall. She writes
‘This year I went over to Myuna Bay in New South Wales to compete in the annual Ozkiwi challenge from 27-31 March. This Ozkiwi was very different from any other one as our tournament was shut down by the New South Wales government halfway through competing. This was because an ash dam had to flood the site in case a 7.2 magnitude or higher earthquake was to hit. Although this happened we still got one round of the tournament finished. For the Under 17 girls in the Slalom I finished with the bronze medal, and a bronze in the trick. We managed to get in 2 rounds of jump before we were asked to leave. I narrowly missed out on the gold medal but was super happy with the silver. I also got bronze in overall, which is when the scores from Slalom Trick and Jump are put together to get the overall score.

Regionals
At the Canterbury Regionals on the 6-7th of April it was 5 degrees and raining for both the Saturday and Sunday of the tournament. Although the conditions were terrible the competition still went ahead. This year in under 17 girls I claimed the gold in Slalom, Trick, Jump and Overall as well as winning the Champion of Champions which is said to be the most sort after award in the South Island.

Nationals
New Zealand nationals were held at the Orakei Basin in Auckland and were the 60th annual Water Skiing Nationals. The weather held out very well for the whole week, with blue skies and glass calm conditions every day for the whole week. This year I competed in both under 17 girls and made my debut in Open. I managed to get the bronze in the Slalom, Jump and Overall, and claim the silver medal in the Tricks. This year I also competed in Open Womens for the first time, in all 3 events being Slalom, Trick and Jump. This was a big achievement of mine as the benchmark required to make Open is quite high, so I had to work hard throughout the season to be able to compete in Open. At the New Zealand Nationals Prizegiving, I won the Silver Star award. (Very confusing and hard to explain, barely know what it is for myself.) What I've been told, every woman’s score in New Zealand is compared to a world-wide scale and compared to the best people in the world. Your scores are then averaged against the top people in the world. The award shows high performance and consistency throughout the season pretty much.
I have been tournament Water Skiing since I was 11 years old, but have been able to ski since I was 6 as we always went out on the boat in Wanaka when I was younger. I've finished skiing now until September. Hopefully next season I will be selected to go to the annual Ozkiwi again, but one of my biggest goals is being selected 1 of 6 to go to the U17 Junior Worlds in Florida next July.’

Wow, Emily that all makes some very impressive reading. We are hugely proud of your achievements and your results. Congratulations on the Silver Star award. Enjoy the break from Water Skiing and we wish you well for the next season.