Congratulations to all our students who have succeeded in academia, sport, culture or in the community. If you have any success stories to share, please send them to marketing@stpauls.school.nz along with a photo of the event. 

Charlotte Macdonald (Year 13) has been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2023 Australian Nationals for individual trampolining and will compete in the Women's FIG 17-21. New Zealand takes only two athletes per age and gender category. To be selected, Charlotte had to compete for her club or region at an international level and qualify in the top two scores. 

The New Zealand Open Swimming Championships were held 1 - 5 April in Auckland. Year 12 Ollie Mouat gained a Waikato record in 50 Fly for 16 years old, as well as finishing 6th in the A Final of the Mens 50 Fly.

Sophie Perry (Year 13) and Amelie Austin (Year 12), along with Collegian Laura Littlejohn (Harington 2020 - 2022) finished 3rd in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay and 2nd in the 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay. They were joined by fellow St Paul's Collegiate Swim Club swimmer and team member Nina De Coster. 

Curtis Gower (Year 10) captained his team at the polocrosse test series competing against New South Wales. The boys' team won their first game by two goals (9 - 7) and lost the second game by three goals (7 - 10). Curtis led well from the front as an example to the others on the team. 

Natalya Walker-Riggins (Year 12) is a member of the Waikato U18 Women's Lacrosse team that travelled to Perth to compete in the 2023 Lacrosse Australia U18 National Championship. Her team placed third overall.

More than 550 riders attended the three-day Škoda North Island Schools Mountain Bike Championships in Rotorua during the school holidays. Max Young (Year 9) took part in the competition based in the Whakarewarewa Forest in the Enduro competition at Te Putake O Tawa track which involved riding three tracks. Max placed 5th, 6th and 13th (even with a crash on the final leg) and came 7th overall in his age group. It was his first big event and he is ready to go to Nationals in Blenheim in October. 

Paxton Maling (Year 9) competed at three tennis tournaments during the school holidays. He played a Tier 2 in Wellington, Tier 2 in Canterbury and represented the Waikato-Bays region (consisting of four boys and four girls from Waikato, Bay of Plenty & Hawke's Bay) at the Nationals Teams event as the boys' number 1 seed playing against players from Northern, Canterbury, Auckland, Central, and Southern in both singles and doubles. Paxton came 3rd in the Tier 2 Central Tournament in Wellington and was voted by his peers at the Teams Nationals event to be the ‘good sport’ out of all the U14 Boys.

Sophie Dunn (Year 12) and Gane Harbutt (Year 13) were selected to represent the North Island in the annual North vs South Rowing Regatta. The event was held over the Easter holidays at Lake Karapiro. Sophie and her teammate competed in the Girl's Double, winning the final by a substantial margin. Gane's crew raced to victory in both the Men's 4 and 8 with a new record time for the regatta of 5:50.6 in the 8. Making the team is a great achievement and then winning their races after a short training time is impressive. The South Island took the overall win on points, but Sophie and Gane made substantial contributions to the North Island teams.

Mitchell Rush completed the 2023 barefoot waterskiing season as National Champion in Junior Boys for tricks and slalom with an impressive final result as 11th in the world.

The Senior Girls Waterpolo team had success at the North Island Secondary Schools competition. In round-robin play, the girls lost to St Cuthbert's College A 11 - 5, won against Rangitoto B 8 - 6 and then drew with Epsom Girls Grammar 6 - 6. In the quarter and semi-final games, the girls beat Waikato Diocesan A 8-3 and Auckland Diocesan Senior C 9 - 7. This meant the team was in the plate final to see who would finish 9th in Division 2. The final against Hibiscus Coast was a closely fought game. With three seconds left on the clock, a time-out was called. St Paul's Collegiate Girls were down by one goal. The score was 3 - 4. The decision was made to get the ball to Caitlin Foote as quickly as possible. With seconds remaining, Caitlin aimed at the goal and scored an incredible long-distance shot to draw the game. The team presumed that there would be a penalty shootout. However, based on goal countback over the tournament the St Paul's girls found themselves to be one goal ahead of Hibiscus Coast and were the winners of the Division 2 Plate. It was a phenomenal finish to the tournament.