by Rachael Parker

St Hilda's Sport news

Summer Quad

On Sunday, 25 February, our school quad teams headed to Christchurch to compete in our Summer Quad exchange. Hosted by St Margaret's College, it was a great two days playing Columba College, St Margaret's College, Rangi Ruru and Craighead Diocesan School.  

A tough first game for the touch team against Columba College, going down 7-1, cricket and volleyball came away with first game wins and tennis had no games until Monday morning.  At the end of the exchange St Hilda's finished 3rd overall with the cricket team bringing back the cricket banner as winners.

Congratulations to St Margaret's College coming 1st overall for Summer Quad this year.

Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker

Otago Secondary Schools' Touch Competition

Our Senior A Touch team finished Summer Quad, then headed to compete in the Otago Secondary Schools' Championships.  Meeting Columba College in the final again and going down to finish second.

SISS Rowing

With the weather playing ball for most of the weekend the St Hilda's crew had a great start to the South Island Secondary Schools' Regatta.  Not having had a full regatta yet, due to wind, would we see a completed roster of events? Unfortunately that didn't occur with Saturday afternoon called off from lunch time due to winds.  

Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker

On finals day, our crews battled hard against changeable winds and earned some great top 10 finishes. 

Congratulations to Georgia Graham and Perri Hore who combined to win a silver in the Double Scull and Georgia for bringing home a gold in her Single Scull.

Image by: Rachael Parker

Willows Cricket

Post Summer Quad, our cricket team stayed an extra night to play Christchurch Girls' High School at the beautiful Willows Cricket ground.  After a drizzly start, the game got underway and it was oh so close!  St Hilda's lost the toss and were put into the field. Christchurch Girls' High School had a good start to their innings but were slowed up in the middle after some crucial wickets. Hannah O'Connor and Megha Senthilkumar had tight bowling figures of 0-12 runs, Sophie Deerness, Ruby Anderson, Amelia Boustead, Beth Homer, Emilie Barron all contributed with one wicket each and Marley Hore took two wickets. Christchurch Girls' High School finishing with a target of 123.

Two quick wickets in our batting innings made for a slow run rate at the start but Hannah O'Connor and Sophie Deerness soon picked up the pace. With only 19 runs from 12 balls remaining, it was going to be close. Unfortunately, our girls couldn't quite pick up the win, but it was a great game to watch, and a fantastic experience for our new players.

Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker

Otago/Southland Water Ski Championships

On Sunday, 25 February, the St Hilda’s Water Ski team competed in the Otago Southland Secondary Schools’ Slalom Water Ski Championships held at Perkins Pond, near Millers Flat. There were 31 skiers who competed across three age groups and on two slalom course widths - Novice and Championship. The skiers completed two rounds of competition in the day, carving tightly through the six-buoy slalom course with the boat speed increasing in 3km/hr increments after each pass. The starting speed for novice skiers is 37km/hr progressing up to 58 km/hr in the championship course. Points are awarded for the number of buoys and the highest speed at which they completed the buoy turns.

Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker

This year, our St Hilda’s team comprised of four Year 9 novice skiers: Harriet McKay, Olivia Williams, Sophie Small and Molly Hurring. This was their first slalom skiing competition and have all learnt much to put into practice for next year’s competition. 

Sophie Small won the Under 14 Girls Novice event and our team’s total points over the two rounds of slalom skiing placed St Hilda’s fifth team overall in the tournament.

Congratulations to our 2024 team members. 

Image by: Rachael Parker

South Island Secondary Schools' Triathlon/Duathlon Championships

Congratulations to our girls who competed in the South Island Secondary Schools' Triathlon/Duathlon Championships in Oamaru. Well done to our senior and junior Triathlon teams coming 1st. Our Senior Duathlon team came 1st and Zara Lunam coming 2nd in the Individual Duathlon.

Fantastic results.

Image by: Rachael Parker

Otago Secondary Schools' Athletics

Congratulations to Charlee Farquhar who broke the Otago record in the U14 Shot Put this morning at the Otago Secondary Schools' Championships, with a throw of 11.40m. Charlee also won the U14 Discus event with a distance of 32.81m.

Other main results:

Mia Braithwaite - 3rd U14 Triple Jump 8.42m

Ruby Aspinall - 2nd in U14 Shot Put 8.84m

Charlee Farquhar - 2nd U14 High Jump 1.40m

Dara McCurdy - 5th U14 High Jump St 1.25m

Rosie Gaffaney - 3rd U15 High Jump 1.40m, 3rd U15 1500m

Zoe Lithgow - 4th in the 400m Junior Girls race

Otago Secondary Schools' Volleyball

Over the weekend, our Senior Volleyball team were back in action at the Edgar Centre. A nail biter game against Columba College saw the team take the win.  A tough second day against a very good Otago Girls' High School team saw our team finishing 6th.

Image by: Rachael Parker
Image by: Rachael Parker


Image by: Rachael Parker


Golf

Congratulations to Anahera Koni who came 10th out of 56 Otago Secondary Schools' Golfers at the Eagles Intercollegiate at Taieri Lakes Golf Club last Monday. A huge thanks to her wonderful caddie Olivia Williams.

Image by: Rachael Parker


Orienteering

Ida Rathbone achieved some great results, first in a Yellow Trail (medium level) amongst 21 other runners. Charlotte McVicar, who is new to the game, has been steadily climbing up the ranks with improved times each week. 

Races so far have been all over Otepoti, including Ross Creek, Kaikorai Valley and the surrounding forest, and the Waiora Scout Camp forest and hills.

Summer Tournament

Good luck to teams heading off at the end of this week for Summer Tournament Week.

Senior Touch - South Island Secondary School's Tournament

Senior Water Polo - South Island Secondary School's Tournament

Senior Volleyball - South Island Satellite

Rowing - Maadi Cup - Nationals


Student achievement:

Congratulations to Rosie Gaffaney who has been selected into the NZ U15 Basketball Squad.  Rosie will attend several training camps before the final team will be named. 

Good Luck!

Rachael Parker
Director of Sport