As we kickstart 2024, Sport@Dio is full steam ahead with our Term 1 Summer sports kickstarting. Below is an update on what is happening so far.

• Touch begins this week; after a lull post-COVID, we have entered four teams into this term's competition.

• Volleyball is in full swing, with our two senior teams competing at The Peak on a Saturday.

• Athletics 8-week program begins this week with Barrie Jennings at Porritt Stadium.

• Senior Water Polo have named their teams post-trials, and their competition begins this week.

• Futsal has started its season with two teams in the senior competition and three in the junior competition.

• Cricket began their season last Tuesday with a great win against St Paul's Collegiate.

• Inline Hockey will plan to do a Learn to Play programme before the competition begins in Term 2.

• To encourage participation, our Code Captains are driving “Give it a Go” sessions across the various codes we offer over the coming weeks.

Enrolmy/Sign Up

This is a reminder that we encourage all our students to review our Sports sign-up website, Enrolmy. This is where you can sign up and register for our various sporting codes, register for trials and pay your season fees. Students are being sent out a weekly update on a Monday regarding sports that are currently active.

The Co-Curricular Sports Guide for 2024 is also an excellent resource for reading more in-depth about the codes we offer here at Waikato Dio.

Celebrating Sports@Dio

Many of our girls have also been in action during the summer break and the start of the school year, achieving some fantastic results in their respective codes, updated below.

Cricket

Over the summer holidays, we had some fabulous Dio cricketers in action, representing their respective District Association teams in various representative tournaments.

• Northern Districts Emerging Rangatahi Tournament (18-21 Dec 2023). Catherine Hardie (class of 2023) represented Waikato Valley. Gemma Spice, Danneka Dodd, Mckenzie Hussey, Poppy McKay and Saskia Potter represented Hamilton.

• U19 National Tournament (6-12 Jan 2024). Catherine Hardie (class of 2023) represented Northern Districts.

• U17 National Tournament (15-18 Jan 2024). Gemma Spice represented Northern Districts.

Equestrian

Year 13 boarder Sophia Smyth and her horse Double Shott, also known as Alfie, competed in the Takepodo Classic last week. Sophia was just one of 2 entered into the Eryn Duffy-designed jump-off, which she completed with a clear 42.41 second round. This resulted in Sophia coming out on top and winning the Takepoto Classic Junior Rider show jumping class. Incredible, Sophia, congratulations!

Futsal

Dio students, past and present, were also in action over the summer holiday break, competing in the NZ Youth Futsal Nationals, which was held in Wellington from 14-17 December 2023.

(Class of 2023) Kate Stephens, Hayley Williams and Tyla Tapp competed in the NZ Youth Futsal Nationals held in Wellington from 14-17 Dec 2023, representing Waikato in the U19 team. The team came runners-up after a hard-fought final, which came down to extra time.

In the same tournament, juniors Mia Humphrey, Bella Cochrane, Freya Douglas and Zoe Duggan represented the Waikato U15 team, who took out the National U15 girls title after an intense penalty shootout. Our Senior A Futsal and 1st XI Football coach Derek was their coach.

Inline Hockey

Junior student Caitlin Stratford competed in the Inline Hockey Winter Mixed Competition, held Dec 2-3, 2023, here in Hamilton at the Hamilton Devils Skating Rink. Caitlin competed in a mixed team with boys from Hamilton Boys High and Hillcrest High School, taking out the U14 Competition.

Lacrosse

Past student Katie Hollands, Class of 2022, and current student Nicole Hollands competed in the Southern Cross Tournament as NZ U20 representatives, held in Melbourne 2-7 January. The team placed 3rd overall, and the tournament was designed as a preparation tournament for the World U20 Tournament, which will be held in Hong Kong in August. 

 In other exciting Lacrosse news, Claire Johnstone, Kiera Lloyd and Sienna have been selected into the U18 Waikato Training Squad for U18 Nationals to be held in Melbourne this Easter. Congratulations girls!

Multisport

Senior student Lucy McMorran took part in the Coast to Coast World Multisport Championships from Greymouth to Christchurch at the start of this month. Lucy completed the 30 km mountain run over Goat Pass at 1000m elevation, which she completed in 6 hours, and a 70 km road cycle across the Canterbury Plains in 2 hours. Lucy and her Dad competed in a two-person relay team in the family mixed category, finishing 5th place. They completed the Coast-to-Coast in 15 hours and 30 minutes. Epic stuff, Lucy and Lucy's dad!

Rugby Sevens

Sevens superstar Sienna Meinung competed at the Global Youth Sevens Tournament on 15-17 Dec 2023, held at King's College. Sienna was selected to participate in the New Zealand Dutch Girls' team. This is an epic opportunity to compete internationally in a pool of 52 girls' and boys' teams, with 24 international teams representing 10 nations. Nice work, Sienna!

Rowing

Our rowing girls had their first regatta of the season at the Christmas Regatta at the end of Term 4, wearing Waikato Rowing Club colours, held down at Lake Karapiro 15-17 Dec 2023. Waikato Dio were in 14 finals (13 A finals) represented across all age groups, with 10 top 4 finishes, a win for the Girls U18 8+, Girls U15 8+, Girls U18 4+ and Girls U16 8+. 

Congratulations to past and current Dio rowers selected for New Zealand U19 and U21 development camps held at the end of last year.

• U19 Development Camp- Alexandra People, Isabelle Melville and Maya Trower

• U21 Development Camp- Zoe Fon and Alice Mackintosh

Also, a special mention to Waikato Dio’s Director of Rowing, Alice Denyer, for being invited to coach at the U19 camp. Great stuff, girls!

Swimming

Some of our talented swimmers were in action in Australia in December 2023. Congratulations to Ariella Riley and Paige Stringer, who represented Swimming Waikato as part of the Youth Performance Squad competing at the Queensland State Championships in Brisbane. Both girls qualified for finals in their respective events, smashing Personal Best times.

Code Captain Sophie Hay also represented New Zealand Swimming as part of the Swimming New Zealand Open Water team that competed at the New South Wales Open Water Championships. Well done, Sophie!

Waterpolo

A big congratulations goes out to Maclaine Stuart, who has been awarded for her hard work and dedication to the sport while representing Waikato Waterpolo. Maclaine was awarded the Waikato Waterpolo U16 Girls Team Player Award 2023.

Something to share?

If your daughter or someone you know has a fantastic sporting achievement to be recognised, please fill out the Sporting Recognition Form so we can celebrate all achievements.

We now have a new up-and-running Sports@Dio Facebook page for all information regarding what is happening in the sporting world here at Dio. Like and subscribe!

Upcoming Sports@Dio Events

Term 1 brings our exciting annual school-wide house events, Athletics Day on Tuesday, 27 February and Swimming Sports on Thursday, 7 March. We are also approaching our Summer Tournament week, March 18-22. This will include teams competing in NZSS Volleyball Champs, Maadi Cup, ND Cricket Regional Gillette Venus Qualifiers and NZSS Girls' Futsal Champs.

Athletics Sports - Tuesday 27 February

Important Information

Buses: Day Students who are registered bus users, those on Cambridge (D030519) and Te Awamutu (D030503, D030533), will be dropped off and picked up from Porritt Stadium. All other buses will come to school as usual, and we will transport students via a bus to and from Porritt Stadium.

Preparation

Wear your PE uniform to Porritt Stadium and home again. This may include your Dio Track Suit or House Singlet. You may wear an item of clothing in House colours that is appropriate during activity and can be removed for competition if necessary.

• Come with a water bottle and plenty of kai (food).
• Roll Call is at 8:30 am. Please arrive on time.
• Be picked up no later than 3:30 pm

Run of the Day

• 8.20 am - Arrival of all students (bus students will arrive later)

Track Events Field Events

• 8:00 am Event 1 3000m Final - all ages
• 8:40 am Event: 2 800m Walk (2 laps) as part of House Parade
• 9:15 am 100m (Competitive Heats)

- Event: 3 Senior

- Event: 4 Intermediate

- Event: 5 Junior

• 9:30 am 100m House Events
• 10:15 am1500m Finals

- Event: 6 Junior

- Event: 7 Intermediate

- Event: 8 Senior

• 10:40 am 300/400m (Timed Finals)

- Event: 9 Junior (300m)

- Event: 10 Intermediate (400m)

- Event: 11 Senior (400m)

• 9:15 am Field Events: 

- Event:17 High Jump Junior

- Event: 18 Javelin Junior

- Event: 19 Long Jump Intermediate

- Event: 20 Triple Jump Intermediate

- Event: 21 Discus Senior

- Event: 22 Shot-put Senior

• 10:15 am Field Events: 

- Event: 23 High Jump Intermediate

- Event: 24 Javelin Intermediate

- Event: 25 Triple Jump Senior

- Event: 26 Long Jump Senior

• 11:15 am Field Events

- Event: 27 Triple Jump Junior

- Event 28 Long Jump Junior

- Event 29 Shot Put Intermediate

- Event 30 Discus Intermediate

- Event 31 High Jump Senior

- Event 32 Javelin Senior

• 11:15 am 200 Metre Heats

- Event: 12 Junior

- Event: 13 Intermediate

- Event: 14 Senior

• 12.00 midday 

- Event: 15 Clash of the Codes - Code Captains

- Event: 16 House Mascot Race

• 12.30 pm - 1.00 pm Lunch break

Track / Field Finals

- Event:1:15 pm 200 Metre (Finals)

- Event: 33 Junior

- Event: 34 Intermediate

- Event: 35 Senior

• 1:30 pm 800 Metre Finals

- Event: 36 Junior

- Event: 37 Intermediate

- Event: 38 Senior

• 1:50 pm 100 Metre (Finals)

- Event: 39 Junior

- Event: 40 Intermediate

- Event: 41 Senior

• 2:15 pm House Relays (Wilson Lane L1, Blake L2, Hillary L3, Ross L4, Scott L5, Shack L6)

- Event: 42 Junior

- Event: 43 Intermediate

- Event: 44 Senior

• 1:15 pm Events

- Event: 45 Discus Junior

- Event: 46 Shot-put Junior

• 2:40 pm Registered Bus students (Day Students) dismissed for pick up. Please meet at the gate with Mrs Sutton and Mrs Johnstone to take the roll and accompany them to the bus.
• 3:00 pm Roll check and final announcements.
• 3:10 pm Boarders Dismissed for bus pick-up
• 3:20 pm End of School Day - Pick up concluded