The annual Canterbury Primary Schools’ Cross Country was held at Halswell Quarry on Wednesday 19 June. Four SMC girls ran extremely well and were placed.

Year 8 - Chloe McNeill 8th
Year 7 - Sophie Maxwell 18th
Year 7 - Sophie Booth 14th
Year 5 - Charlotte Maxwell 8th

With a top 10 place, Charlotte is now in the Canterbury Inter-Regional Cross Country representative team and will contest the Phil Costley Shield on 26th September in Hanmer against teams from Tasman, Wellington and South Canterbury.
Awesome work Charlotte. We wish you all the best for the September competition.

In Timaru, a couple of weeks ago SMC was represented by 3 girls competing at the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Cross Country event.
In the individual races on the first day Claudia Hundleby (Y9), Lily Keenan (U16) and Hannah Bayliss (Senior) competed in some strong fields with 113 entries in the senior grade.

In the team's event on Sunday both Lily and Hannah competed for the Canterbury B teams in their respective age groups.

SMC Hockey (Yr 9-13)
We are about midway through our season and are very proud of the way our 8 teams are performing.
The 1st Team are in one of the best competitions within NZ which guarantees a challenging game every Friday night. They are performing well and every game is great preparation for tournament week in Auckland at the beginning of September. Eleven players of this team will be representing Canterbury in the holidays. We wish them well and hope they can bring back some medals.
The 2nd XI team has maintained a winning streak in Division One. The coach has been very impressed with the leadership of the senior students and the quick development of the players new to this level of hockey. They too are building on each performance with a focus on developing versatile players who are confident to play in different positions. Their national tournament is in Stratford in September.
As a fundraiser, both 1st and 2nd XI players have been sweeping leaves on a Sunday afternoon at the Christchurch Stadium. We are thankful too, to the many parents and siblings who have offered their time and enabled us to complete the task quicker.
Our Red and White Teams in Division Two are tracking well, and are sitting mid-table. Both teams have experienced some great games of late, so will be looking forward to meeting their opponents again as they enter Round #2.
It has been wonderful to see our 2018 Captain of Hockey, Charlotte Lee, return to SMC as a coach and share her knowledge and talent with the White Team.
The Green, Blue and Silver Teams have now settled into their games after a couple of late changes to the structure of their competition. These teams are tight on numbers so we have been super impressed with the girl's commitment to their games and training.
Our senior student only team, the Gold team, have been enjoying their Monday night competition. The main focus for this team is team camaraderie and friendship while playing a game they love. They play a range of teams, some that do attend tournament week, so it is a good challenge too.
We are excited to have Blackstick Rachel McCann offering some specialised skills clinics on Sundays, available to all our players. Each session is limited to 6 students and has a different focus each week. Sunjay Ganda has also been working with our goalies across the grades on a Tuesday afternoon. We are very lucky to be able to have such specialists available to us.
Thank you to wonderful support from the sidelines and to the many students that are volunteering their time to umpire.
We hope you are all enjoying the season as much as the Coaches, Managers and players.

House Day - what a wonderful day at the start of June where every student got to experience the fun, excitement and competition of House Day. House colours were abundant across all the activities.
The biggest thanks go to our amazing House Leaders - what a huge job coordinating all our team members from Year 1-13 and incorporating them into not only the morning activities but also seamlessly and magically having them set their scene in the House plays.
Points from the eight activities were accumulated with the following result:
5th = Konini and Kowhai
4th - Rimu
3rd - Rata
2nd - Matipo
1st - Manuka
House plays were also closely contested with the judges finding it very difficult to separate them. However, the results were:
6th - Manuka
5th - Rimu
4th - Kowhai
3rd - Konini
2nd - Rata
1st - Matipo

Netball - It was a great day at the Hagley Park Netball courts when I got to see our Year 3 & 4 girls playing last week. Not only was there awesome parent and family support for these girls, but it was also great to see the girls bouncing around excitedly having a fun time and working together.
Our student coaches Maisie and Isabella have been working hard with the girls to improve their skills and the girls are loving their netball.
Our Senior A team were fortunate to have Marianne Delaney-Hoshek (Mainland Tactix Head Coach) pop in on their lunchtime training session last week. The girls gained some valuable coaching ideas which they will be able to incorporate into their upcoming games.
A big shout out to our Yr 9 Eagles team coached by Sophie and Paris. This team has a number of new girls to netball this season and it has been fantastic seeing them improve so quickly. They are making great progress and have notched up a couple of wins during this competition round at Hagley. Great work girls!

SMC S Our Yr 7/8 B team girls have had an up and down start to the season but their recent game against Parklands E was one to remember. This team of girls exhibited true SMC determination, grit and resilience. Unfortunately, they had to start their game with 6 players and they had a fantastic start until they had an injury just before half time. This injury was a fractured index finger so the girls finished the game with 5 players and were even on the scoreboard going into the final quarter. They did lose the game but the attitude and commitment of these 5 girls were fantastic and they showed great character to fight to the end. A huge shout out to this team of SMC girls!! Super proud.

SMC M (9A) Our 9A’s have started well this season and are preparing for the upcoming Junior South Island Secondary Schools’ Tournament. They have had some good games each Saturday and their gameplay and combinations are coming along. They are also the current holders of the Year 9 Shield in the School Sport Canterbury Wednesday Competition.

SMC F Our fantastic group of Year 13 girls!! 5 of these girls have played together during their high school years so it is fabulous that they are playing together in their final season. The end of an era for them. They are playing very well, enjoying their time on the court together and to make them smile even more they had a well-deserved win on Saturday.

Our Senior C girls are playing in U19 Sec 1 in the Saturday competition. They have had some tough games to date but continue to work hard and be very competitive. They are working well as a unit and are enjoying their netball under the expert guidance of Ms Gray.

KIWI WHISTLERS - Congratulations to Charlotte Coughlan for passing her bronze award.
A huge thank you to all of our wonderful coaches, managers, staff and umpires who help with each of our teams each week. Your time and effort are greatly appreciated by us all.
Wishing all of our team's good luck for this weekend’s games!!

Tennis - Ruby Young has been selected to represent New Zealand in the Australian 13/Under Tennis Teams Championships to be held on the Gold Coast from 29 June - 4 July. This teams championship will be followed by two individual events in Brisbane.