Final winter report from our sport leaders

From the Sports Prefects

Term 3 has been a fun-filled term, full of lots of different activities and events. These ranged from our annual Swimming Sports, our Wednesday lunchtime Movements, Quadrangular Tournament and many different winter sports tournaments. All of these events showcased school spirit, determination and enjoyment on each and every student's face.

Swimming Sports was held in Week 4 this term at Moana Pool. The events started with the Year 10 cheerleading competition, before heading to the pool. It was a jam-packed afternoon, with many competitive and non-competitive events. It was great to see everyone getting into the events and great colours on display.

Craighead Diocesan hosted the annual Winter Quadrangular Tournament this year, which meant our netball, hockey, soccer and badminton teams headed up to Timaru to participate. We had some successful results up there over a few days of beautiful weather, where St Hilda’s placed 4th overall. Winter Tournament Week was in Week 8 this term, where we had many different teams representing Hilda’s around the country. These sporting events are always a great chance to meet new competitors from different schools and also represent our school with pride.

We have enjoyed the continuous support for our weekly lunchtime movements at school, and the growing participation of sports at St Hilda’s, and looking forward to the starting of summer sports beginning.

Looking forward to a great term, Billie and Demi xx

Netball

The winter sporting season has flown by once again! St Hilda’s has had a really successful netball season this year. Our Year 9A team have done incredibly well with making the final at Junior South Islands, falling short to St Andrew’s. They also made the final in the local Saturday competition and finished second to Columba 10A. The 10Bs won their final against Bayfield, awesome job girls. We also had many teams finishing third and fourth. Well done to you all! 

The Senior A team had their pinnacle events this term. Firstly heading away to Quad hosted by Craighead. This was a very successful tournament, beating Rangi Ruru, Craighead and St Margaret's but falling short to Columba once again. We then headed down to Invercargill for SISS. This tournament included some huge games, narrowly losing to St Andrew’s and Southland Girls', which meant we were unable to finish in the top five. 

I would like to congratulate Perri Hore and Ruby Flannery on being identified in the talented squad at SISS. Also a huge congratulations to Ella Southby who travelled with the New Zealand Secondary Schools Team to Australia in the July holidays, this is a huge achievement! 

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the Coaches, Managers, Umpires and Parents for all your hard work to ensure that we are able to play the sport we love. 

Farewell to all the Year 13s leaving this year, good luck for your futures! Lastly, best of luck to all of you for next year's netball season.

Harriers

Harriers started to slow down over Winter with the cold weather but are now picking back up again as the temperature rises so more students are coming for a nice lunchtime run. Cross Country has had a few results this term. There were five year 7s who competed in the Ariki Cup Cross Country. Ruby Burgess came 2nd, Lydia Peters 3rd and Mela Shanks came 5th. Maia Koni and Elzanne Hamman finished together with the others to be the top Year 7 and 8 Girls' Team. This term, there was the NZ Secondary Schools Cross Country in which Zara Geddes placed 8th in the Senior Girls' race. This result allowed her to be selected to travel to Canberra, Australia for the Australian Schools Cross Country Championships where she individually placed 8th and the NZ team she was a part of won gold. 

Congratulations everyone on these amazing achievements.

Hockey

The first half of this term was jam packed with hockey with most teams finishing up their hockey season in the local competition, and for the 1st and 2nd XI, who finished their season in Week 7 with Tournament Week. The Year 7 and 8 have had huge development and growth this season. They improved hugely in the Friday night Dunedin competition having some impressive results, which is super exciting for the future of St Hilda’s Hockey. In Division 3, we had the Junior Development team who played on Monday nights finishing up in 4th place. In Division 2 we had the Junior Colts, Senior Development and 9A teams playing. All three teams thrived in this Division with the 9A team finishing 7th, the Senior Development 4th and the Junior Colts finishing 2nd. The Junior Colts went down to Otago Girls' in a nail biting final and were very unlucky not to come away with the win. The Junior Colts were lucky enough to play in a Central Otago exchange. Here they had a strong win against the Central Otago U15 team 3/0, and the draw against Dunstan High School 1st XI 2-2. In Division 1, we had the 2nd XI who finished third. The 2nd XI attended the Chris Arthur tournament in Ashburton in Week 7, where they battled against some strong sides after being promoted from last year's tournament. We saw lots of improvement and plenty of fun during the week and the girls finished up in 11th place. The 1st XI managed to win the Dunedin Secondary Schools competition for the 6th year in a row against Columba 2-0. The girls attended Federation/ Marie Fry (Tier 1 & 2) Tournament in Week 7. This was a first for every single girl in the team, after being promoted from the 3rd Tier tournament last year. The girls played some awesome hockey managing wins against some of NZ’s toughest schools and really held their own. They finished 13th out of 32 schools which kept their spot in this tournament next year.

There have been many girls representing Otago this season which we are extremely proud of and excited to see. However, we would like to make a very special mention to Georgia Roy and Billie Crowe who have been selected in the New Zealand Junior Black Stick camp for 2023 following their outstanding performance at the National U18 Tournament. We wish these girls all the best for their camp in October.

We would finally like to farewell and wish the Year 13 Girls from the 1st and 2nd XI for 2023 all the best for their adventures ahead: Hannah Wilson, Nova Wright, Molly McKenzie, Charlotte McKenzie, Demi McAlwee, Myah King, Chloe Deerness, Charlotte Paterson, Billie Crowe, Georgia Roy, Anna McClean, Ava Beens, Hattie Kerr, Jess Wilden and Hannah Lithgow.

Aerobics

Term 3 was a big term for St Hilda’s Aerobics! The girls got to show off all their hard work at Otago Regionals held on the 12th and 13th of August. 21 St Hilda's athletes competed in heats and 13 competed in Finals. Some results are: Molly Luxton and Sophie Wagner 3rd and Alia Ryan and Isla 1st in the Secondary Open Novice Teams category. Sam Williamson 1st in Pre Choreographed Intermediate Individual. Alia Ryan 2nd in Secondary Novice Individual. Sasha Lamb and Cassie Horo  2nd in Secondary Open Teams. Mia Wall  3rd and Sophie Wagner  2nd in Junior Secondary Open Novice Individual. Zara Geddes  3rd, Lindsay Black and Elisa Fitzgearald finalists in Senior Secondary Open Novice Individual. Chloe Woodhouse 1st in Senior Secondary Open Individual, and awarded the Technical Excellence trophy. The fitness team, Adrenaline, with Molly Wagner and Lindsay Black placed 2nd in the Fisaf Grande Teams category. All finalists were selected for nationals, which were held in Wellington on the 17th and 18th of September. St Hilda’s had another successful competition. Sophie and Molly were finalists, Isla and Alia placed 2nd in Secondary Open Novice Teams. Sophie was a finalist in Junior Secondary Open Novice Individual. The fitness team, Adrenaline with Molly and Lindsay finished 2nd in Fisaf Grande Teams. Sasha and Cassie placed 1st in Secondary Open Teams. Lindsay and Elisa competed in the heats in Senior Secondary Open Novice Individual. Chloe was placed 1st in Senior Open Individual. Sam was 1st in Pre Choreographed Intermediate Individual and was also awarded the ‘Most Potential Pre Choreographed Trophy’! Well done to all the girls!

Rugby

Rugby has been busy in the last two terms. Our 1st XV Rugby team competed in the Otago Regional Final against Otago Girls High School. There turned out to be quite a big crowd despite the horrible wind and rain, loads of parents, teachers and St Hilda's students came down to support the team. It was a very intense close game. 

In the last five minutes, all year 13s got to play together one last time. The girls should all be very proud of themselves despite the score being in OG’s favour. Thanks to the three coaches Erik Va’afusuaga, Brett Challis and Grant Milne, and Team Manager Deirdre Birks, who have donated four trophies to carry throughout the 1st XV team in more years to come, a tradition has started this year! Va’afusagua whānau have donated ‘Rookie of the Year’. The winner of this trophy went to our talented Neve Black. Back of the year - donated by Milne whānau went to our superstar Charlotte Va’afusuaga. Forward of the Year - donated by Challis whānau was awarded to Hannah Lithgow. The Players' Player of the Year trophy, donated by Birks whānau, went to our very own hard working Captain with her 'never give up attitude'; Hannah Lithgow.

The Year 9 team won all of their games throughout the season, ending up first in their grade. The year 10s also had a good season and we can tell there are some promising players coming through to the first XV next year!

Exciting news as Hannah Lithgow, Grace Hastie and Charlotte Va’afusuaga all made the Otago Spirit team this year. Hannah Lithgow, Honour Birks, Georgia Chambers, Grace Hastie and Charlotte Va’afusuaga also made the Otago U18 women’s team. 

We have a number of our younger girls who have made the Otago Metro U16 team; Sarah Stephens, Liv O’Brien, Elsie Homer, Neve Black, Xanthe Payne, Zara Luman and Aya Moetaua. 

The future of Rugby at St Hilda’s is looking bright and we can say that all of our players displayed their best attitudes and made St Hilda’s proud.

Football

This term the school football team competed in the annual Winter Quad Tournament. The team this year are all very new to the sport of football so we went into this competition just thinking about having fun and trying our best. Overall we definitely succeeded and had a lot of fun. As well as the tournament we competed in our school league. We lost in the semis, so overall we came in 3rd this year. It was such an amazing season and everyone in the team played so well. We loved all the new people joining us in Term 3 for tournament and weekly matches. 

I hope to see everyone from this season back next year plus even more people. Football is a really fun and easy sport to be a part of and you can have any level of skills to play. 

This weeks student achievements:

Basketball 

The U13 Otago A Basketball Team played in the Gore Tournament in the weekend against teams from South Canterbury to Southland. They won all of their games by big margins, including the final. Well done girls and all the best for your upcoming South Island Tournament in Ashburton.

Hockey

Five St Hilda's Year 7 and 8 girls represented Otago Metro in Invercargill this past weekend in a Southern Hockey Tournament.

Mia Braithwaite, Ella Murphy, Maia Koni, Isabella Harrex and Stella Harvey all took part.

Luge

Maggie has been selected to represent New Zealand in Luge. Leaving on the 3rd of October she will train in Norway, Latvia, Austria and Germany. She will compete in five Youth World Cup races in Germany and Austria, with the ultimate goal of
qualifying for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Korea in January.

Rachael Parker
Director of Sports