Aerobics - Gabi Horo

In February this year, St Hilda’s held the aerobics auditions. We had an impressive turnout of new and more experienced girls, eager to take part in this year’s competition season. St Hilda’s aerobics now has 41 girls involved in NZCAF aerobics, which is extremely exciting for the year ahead. Our first competition is NZCAF regionals in mid-August, meaning all the girls are underway with choreographing and learning new routines. It’s great to have so many new coaches on board this year to support our new athletes with their routines. We are hoping to hold a couple of workshops across Term 2 and 3, to help guide the girls with their routines ahead of regionals in Dunedin. It will be a very exciting year of aerobics and we can’t wait to see our athletes hit the stage in mid-August.

Athletics - Emma McKay

The St Hilda’s Athletics season started off a little later than anticipated, with the school sports day being postponed due to COVID-19 alert levels. Luckily a week later levels were lifted and we were able to get everyone down to the Caledonian, dressed up in house colours for a day full of participation and tough competition.

Eight athletes went on to represent St Hilda’s at the Otago Secondary School Athletics Championships, which were held on the 12th and 13th of March here in Dunedin. There were many outstanding achievements throughout these 2 days, with notable performances from Zara Geddes - who took out four 1st places in the U16 800m, 1500m, 3000m and Steeplechase, also breaking the Steeplechase record. Renee Willis was dominant in the throwing circle, taking out two 1st places in the U16 Hammer Throw and Shot put, breaking records in both events. Billie Crowe came 3rd in the U15 400m and 1st in the 800m.

In the U19 events Alika Croot gained 1st place in Pole Vault, breaking the record. Kristen Willis took out both Shot Put and Hammer Throw titles, with Sophie Shallard placing 2nd in the 1500m. Bernice Cullen was 1st in the Long Jump, equalling the record with her best jump and Emma McKay followed, with 2nd in the Long Jump. St Hilda’s dominated the Triple Jump, with Emma McKay 2nd, Bernice Cullen 3rd and Alika Croot 4th. The season will come to an end after the South Island Secondary School Athletics Championships, which take place on the 9th & 10th of April in Christchurch. Good luck girls, we look forward to hearing your results.

Cricket - Jordan Meltzer

St Hilda's have started the Cricket season off strong, with some great wins during Wednesday Cricket as girls got to display their talents. The Year 7/8 and First XI teams are both heading away later in the year to represent the school at their national tournaments.

The school's First XI team went up against Wakatipu High School in the Bates Cup final. St Hilda’s went into bat first and set a large total of 155/7 off 20 overs. Jordan Meltzer top scored with 80 runs off 56 balls and was well supported by Molly Loe who scored 31 runs off 27 balls. In the second innings it was an all-round team effort with bowling and fielding, with Anna McClean taking 3 wickets off her 4 overs for only 15 runs. This contributed to Wakatipu only putting up 85/8 off their 20 overs resulting in a convincing win for Hilda’s cricket.

The Year 7/8 girls played Fairfield in their NZ Shield final and went into bat first to set a total of 97/5 off their 20 overs. Sophie Deerness top scored with 35 and was well supported by Cydney McAlwee who scored 24. In the second innings, the girls put up a stunning fielding and bowling effort with Sophie getting a hatrick and Emily Barron also getting two wickets of her own. Fairfield ended up being all out for 58 runs resulting in another great win for Hilda’s cricket.

Futsal - Phoebe Holdridge

St Hilda’s started off the futsal season fairly rocky, with Covid-19 alert level two pushing back the first games. The return to alert level one allowed the first games of the season to commence and we saw some great results and participation from all our teams. There have been some outstanding team performances over the term, with the St Hildas Junior Green team winning 5-1 against Logan Park and the St Hilda’s Senior Red team having a great result against Columba. A special mention should be made of the first place win at Otago Futsal Champs!

We had two St Hilda’s teams compete in the Otago Futsal Champs on the 19th of March, the Junior A team and the Senior A team. We saw a fantastic result with the combined effort of our two senior teams St Hilda’s Blue and St Hilda’s Red. The Senior A team fought for the trophy, winning all four of their games and making it to the final, where they faced Mount Aspiring College. It was a very tight game between the two teams but after the final whistle, it was a 4-3 win to St Hildas.

Golf - Priyanka McKenzie-Patel & Chloe Light

Golf has really taken off at St Hilda’s this term, with a number of girls getting involved in our weekly lessons rising from only 8 to nearly 30. The season started off pretty slowly, with the girls learning the basics (putting, driving etc). There has been great improvement, with all the students heading out onto the course getting on par and even achieving some birdies. All of the golfing girls have almost finished their lessons, with our last week coming up next week. We are celebrating the final session with some food and of course more golfing! We are super happy with the achievements the girls have made and many are excited to start hitting the golf course, leaving their instructors behind and making some happy golfing memories!

Rock-Climbing - Amelia Kirk

Rock climbing at St Hilda’s has started off strongly, with many girls signing up and willing to give it a go. We run two lunchtime sessions per week, where we teach the girls knot-tying skills, rope management, safe belaying practices, as well as some technical route climbing. Later in the year we are hoping to get a small group of dedicated girls to compete in a couple of competitions. The NIBS (National Indoor Bouldering Series) bouldering competition is coming up in July and is held in the new bouldering gym in Dunedin, so it would be awesome to see a few girls representing St Hilda’s at this event.

Rowing - Pippa Fulton

The St Hilda’s rowing season started in Cctober of 2020, with many enthusiastic participants willing to give sport a go. Our squad of 18 attended 4 club regattas during the first part of the season. Early December brought our first lowkey regatta at Dunstan. St Hilda's crew’s were showing amazing potential and everyone in the squad was getting hyped for the season. Later on in December we went to Otago Champs in Twizel. This was our first big regatta of the year and after the sudden end to our season last year, everyone was raring to go. Unfortunately we only got a day of heats in before the regatta was abandoned due to the wind. But our hope for Lake Ruataniwha was not lost, as we had a 3 day training camp to come. Lots of miles and improvement were made over the 3 days and the lake proved that it could be flat. After the camp we said goodbye for the holiday’s where we had to stay fit to come into the new year strong.

The New Year started with another training camp in Twizel before Canterbury Champs. The two days of training before the regatta contributed to the amazing results that we achieved. We made many A and B finals and were stoked with our efforts. After Canterbury’s we had a couple weeks of training leading up to the last club regatta South Islands Club Champs. At South Island Clubs the St Hilda's team performed incredibly well. We came away with 6 A finals, 5 B finals and a bronze medal for the u15 octuple. We were heading into South Island Secondary School confident. Unfortunately change in alert levels lead to this event being cancelled. Disappointed was a common feeling throughout the crew but we had to keep our heads high because the maadi cup was still on the horizon.

During the time between South Island Club Champs and Maadi we trained harder than any of us thought possible. We traveled to Lake Hayes in Queenstown seeking flat water and had a packed weekend of seat racing and hard laps. We also rowed in the Henley River during the lead up to Maadi. Finally the week of the huge event rolled around and the SHCS crew of 13 were on an airplane bound for Auckland.

10 days were spent in the North Island at Lake Karapiro. We started with heats where all of our crews got through into the next round. Next to repechage and then to semis. St Hildas came out with 3 A finals and 1 B final. A special shout out to the u15 octuple crew that’s came 8th in the A final and 3rd in the South Island well done to Maggie Dowling, Perri Hore, Ruby Flannery, Olivia Ollerenshaw, Elsie Brunside, Olivia Erasmus, Jess Broderick, Anna Fulton and cox Hannah Lawrence. As well as the octi, the u18 novice quad also came 8th in the A final and 3rd in the South Island. Well done to Maggie Dowling, Perri Hore, Ruby Flannery, Anna Fulton and cox Lucy Hilgeholt-Martyn. Christy Foster and Kate Beaton came 8th in their A final and were 1 second off getting 3rd in the South Island. The Maadi Cup was a great way to finish our season. Now it is time for a well deserved break and then we will be back stronger than ever for next season.

Swimming - Meg McLaughlan

This term in swimming, some of our meets have unfortunately been affected by Covid 19. The South Island Club Champs in Invercargill were cut short and a meet in Balclutha was cancelled. Meg Mclaughlan and Sophie Shallard competed at the New Zealand Swimming Championships in Auckland at the end of this term, which are also Olympic Trials, so it was an awesome experience watching the countries fastest swimmers compete. The Otago Primary Swimming Champs will also be held before the end of the term, good luck to Charlotte Aburn and Amara Ogbuehi.

Tennis - Maia Hunter

What a smashing start to St Hilda's tennis for 2021! On the 17th of February we saw a great number of girls from St Hilda’s enter in the Otago Secondary Schools Teams Event, held here in Dunedin. All participants did super well, especially the dynamic duo of Mya haigh and Claudia Christie. These girls finished up in an amazing first place, taking the OSS teams championship title. The cancellation of the annual quadrangular tournament due to level 3 restrictions unfortunately meant that our St Hilda’s tennis team was unable to play. This was a huge disappointment for the St Hilda’s tennis community, however we are hopeful to arrange matches later in the year.

Touch - Gemma Rowcroft

Throughout the course of Term 1, St Hilda’s had an immense number of students participating in touch. We had 8 teams competing in the Otago Secondary Schools competition, held at the Oval on a Tuesday night. The junior teams displayed some promising talent, with the Year 9 Silver team challenging the Year 10 Black team at a high level. This game consisted with alternating tries being scored at each end. The Year 10s managed to show their experience and win the game.

The Senior A team had an exciting season with many wins and a few loses. The team’s first tournament together was the Otago Secondary Schools, which saw the girls winning their first game 2-1 against Columba. However, the final was very close and progressed into a drop off, leading to Columba taking the game during the final few minutes to win the tournament. The girls had a very successful South Island Secondary Schools tournament, with 8 girls making their debut! The team played yet another close final against Columba and beat them 5-4, winning the SISS title for the very first time!

Triathlon - Sophie Shallard

St Hildas triathletes have been very busy this term, competing at the Otago Secondary Schools Champs, the Wanaka Challenge, and the South Island Secondary Schools Champs. At the Otago Secondary Schools Champs, St Hildas came away with some promising results:

Honor Garden - 7th U14 girls
Maddie Cockburn - 3rd U16 girls
Zara Geddes - 2nd U16 girls
Sophie Shallard - 5th U19 girls
Annabel Bilkey, Tessa McConachie, Emma Andrews, Kristen Willis - 8th equal U19 girls
St Hildas A team - 7th U16 teams
St Hildas C team - 9th U16 teams

We also had some good results at the South Island Secondary Schools Champs, where Maddie Cockburn came away with second place in the U16 girls duathlon, and Sophie Shallard also gained second place in the U19 girls triathlon. There is one more event to come by the end of the term - The Otago Primary Triathlon, all the best for these competitors. Since all of the Secondary Schools Triathlon competitions are done for the year, we can't wait to get back into it in 2022, and we would love to see more girls getting into it as well!!

Volleyball - Ellie Cockburn

Our Senior A volleyball team has developed really well over Term 1. We have training two times a week which has been very useful for our team. Due to Covid-19 our annual quad tournament was cancelled, which was really disappointing. We were lucky to be able to attend the South Island Satellite tournament, which taught us how to play together as a team and improve our skill set for our certain positions. We came top of our Division 2 pool in the tournament, but then sadly lost a close game in semis. We followed on to win our final, coming into 3rd place in the end. All the girls did very well in the tournament, playing their hardest and supporting each other. There are also a number of other senior teams playing socially every Monday night, which is cool to see these girls getting into this great sport.

In Junior Volleyball there are a couple social teams in year 9&10 and one in year 7&8 playing every Friday. We have a coach training up the Year 10s to bring them into Seniors next year. They have competed well this term and will play off for third in the Division 1 section. The year 7&8s have hugely improved and no matter the score they always enjoy the game.

Waterpolo - Olivia Brown

This term, Waterpolo has hit a record amount of participation in the amount of girls wanting to play the sport! On the 24th of March, the Senior girls traveled to compete in the South Island Secondary School tournament. They were challenged and they played their socks off, however the competition was very strong. They came out of it with clear goals and are fired up for the games ahead.

In the school competition, the Junior Gold team competed in the B grade and competed against some tough teams and came out with some good wins. The Year 7&8’s have also had some awesome wins and are competing for some of the top spots in the grade. They have learned alot with the help of the coaches and we hope all teams have come away with lots of experience and are ready for the games ahead in Term 4!

Waterskiing - Maisie McGregor

On the 21st of February the Otago Secondary School Water Skiing Competition was on at Perkins Pond. We had three students competing, Sophie Shallard, Maddie Cockburn and Maisie McGregor. The competition is made up of two rounds on the day and you have to single ski through a slalom course. It was a beautiful sunny day for it and the girls did really well! They had gone for practices and had been training over summer. Sophie placed first in the Novice Girls 18 years and under section and Maisie placed second in the same category. We all can’t wait for summer to come around again so we can get back out on the water and hope to see more girls try out the sport and get involved next year!

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