Sports News

Netball trials have started. Our senior teams have been named, and we congratulate all students selected for teams. Our Year 9s finished trials last week, and our Year 10 trials start on 25 March.

Football trials have also been underway, and over 90 students have participated. Team selection will be named in the coming weeks.

Hockey trials are fast approaching. With the opening of our brand-new water turf, hockey trials will be held for juniors and seniors on March 24, 25, and 27.

Tournament Week

Well done to all our students representing our Waikato Diocesan School for Girls at tournaments around the country this week as part of Summer Tournament Week.

• NZSS Futsal Championship - Our team finished 5th in the NZSS Futsal Championships, three spots higher than last year—an incredible achievement! Despite one loss to the overall winner, our team is eager for what the future holds for Futsal.

• NZSS Tennis Cup - Wellington draws, results can be found here

• NZSS Volleyball Championships - Palmerston North fixtures, results, and streaming details can be found here. Our Volleyball squad has been promoted to the 3rd Division, and they hit the court for their first game last night. While the win wasn't theirs this time, their promotion by two divisions is a commendable achievement!

• Rowing - Maadi Cup - Twizel schedule and live stream here. We are in 10 A Finals and two B Finals - outstanding rowers!

• Cricket ND Regional Gillette Venus Cup draws and results can be found here. Our Cricket girls kicked off their tournament with a bang, securing a victory against Cambridge High School.

• Equestrian Pegasus Cup -Takapoto Estate

Athletics Day 2024

Our Kura participated in the highly anticipated school Athletics Day held at Porritt Stadium on Thursday, February 27. The day was filled with awesome house spirit, quality participation from all age groups, and, eventually, some sunshine!

With lots of awesome feedback from our students, the day ended with great results, including crowning our Junior, Intermediate and Senior Athletics Champions. (Please see below). We also had 46 girls qualify in their respective events to compete in Central Zones Athletics, held the following week. 

• Skylar Mearns Year 9 - Junior Athletics Champion 2024
• Poppy Leyland Yr 9 - Runner-up
• Lucia Leith Yr 9 - 3rd Place

• Eva Drake Yr 10 - Intermediate Athletics Champion 2024
• Brooke Devaney Yr 11 - Runner-up
• Bella McLauchlan-Hillary Yr 10 - 3rd Place

• Aylee Scott Yr 13- Senior Athletics Champion 2024
• Libby Street Yr 13 - Runner-up
• Chloe Housley Yr 12 - 3rd Place

Swimming Sports 2024

Dio Swimming Sports was another opportunity for students to participate in another house event. Our day consisted of competitive and fun house events. Although the pool had a slight chill, this didn't stop students from getting involved with the house spirit and having lots of fun.

The day had fun house relays and raft races, epic competitive swimming, and close finishes. 

Swimming Sports Champions for 2024. 

• Alanna Rawson Yr 9 - Junior Swimming Champion 2024
• Poppy Leyland Yr 9 - Runner-up
• Sophia Mohacsi Yr 9 - 3rd Place

• Ariella Riley Yr 11 - Intermediate Swimming Champion 2024
• Tessa Scott Yr 10- Runner-up
• Hayley McIntrye Yr 12 - 3rd Place

• Harriet Vellenoweth Yr 13 - Senior Swimming Champion 2024
• Sophie Hay Yr 13 - Runner-up
• Iris Wainui-Mackle Yr 13 - 3rd Place

Celebrating Sports@Dio

We have seen many awesome achievements and successes throughout the term so far. Please read below for a short snippet of some of our wonderful sporting students and what they have been up to. These achievements include students either representing Dio or participating at a representative level in their respective codes.

Athletics

On March 5, we saw 46 athletes compete at Central Zones Athletics, which was held at Porritt Stadium. These students had qualified for the event in their respective disciplines following our School Athletics Day.

Despite the wind and rain throughout the day, all of the girls had an awesome day enjoying themselves on the track and field, including our Junior Relay team, which took the win!

We have a handful of students who will now be working towards competing at the WBOP Championships in Tauranga on March 26. Great stuff, girls!

Cricket

Our Waikato Dio Cricket team has gone undefeated in the Girls' Secondary School competition, with two games still to be played. Plenty of epic runs have been scored on the board, and wickets have been taken. Most of all, the team has bonded really well, leading to their Northern Districts Qualifying Tournament, which is being held in Tauranga from March 20 to 21 at Blake Park. This tournament allows the team to fight for their place in the New Zealand Cricket Gillette Venus Competition as the Waikato Region Representative in December. All the very best, team!

Equestrian

New Dio Equestrian member Olivia Stone performed brilliantly at Land Rover Horse of the Year. Olivia and her Pony Camberley Shilar had an amazing week at one of the year's biggest horse shows. Competing in Show Hunter, the week included a win in the Champion Class for her category and a place in the Title class. 

• Big on Writing Pony Riders Equitation Series - 5th
• Cat C Open Pony Championship - 1st
• Cat C Handy Hunter - 4th
• Title Class: Cat C Pony Show Hunter of the Year - 5th 

Lacrosse

A massive congratulations to senior students Kiera Lloyd, Sienna Meinung, and Claire Johnstone, who have been selected to represent Waikato Lacrosse in the U18 Girls team. The team will travel to Melbourne over Easter weekend to compete in the Australian 2024 Nationals. Go well, girls!

Open Water Swimming

Dio had four students participating in the NZSSS Open Water Swimming Nationals at Blue Lake in Rotorua. As a school, we placed Top Girls' School and 2nd overall, with impressive individual results.

3.5km swim

- Gemma Hay placed 2nd in the 12-13 age group

- Hayley McIntyre placed 3rd in the 14-15 age group

- Isabelle Blackmore placed 5th in the 14-15 age group

- Sophie Hay placed 1st in the 16-19 category

Sophie was also 1st placed female overall in the open category and 4th person home!

Hayley backed up the 3.5km swim with a 500m swim, in which she placed 3rd in the 14-15 category. Great work, Dio swimmers!

In more open water swimming brilliance, Old Girl Clara McPhillips (Class of 2022) successfully took on the mighty challenge of swimming the length of Lake Taupō (she is one of only 80 who have done this). The Lake is 40.2 km long - a distance longer than the English Channel (33.8 km). Clara's physically and mentally demanding solo swim took her 13 hours and 25 minutes. What an achievement! 

Rowing

In their final regatta before the big dance, our Rowing team again achieved amazing results at the AON North Island Secondary School Championships, taking out a total of four golds, four silvers, and one bronze.

Waikato Dio was named Top Girls' School and 3rd School Overall. Epic work, girls!

Surf Life Saving

Juniors Nelly Freemantle and Poppy Leyland competed at the Surf Life Saving NZ Oceans 24 National Championships, held at Mount Maunganui Main Beach, with 701 athletes from around NZ. They proudly represented Whangamata SLSC in six individual events and three team-style events. Both girls made many finals and produced some fantastic results over these four long days of competition, with record attendance in their age groups.

Nelly placed in the top five in all individual water events: Surf Race 5th, Run-Swim-Run 4th, Board Race 4th, and finally, a bronze in the U13 Female Diamond Race. Nelly and Poppy achieved a bronze medal in the U14 Female Board Relay, displaying some incredible board paddling ocean skills - top Job - two dedicated, fit-for-purpose future lifeguards. 

Tennis

We had representation at the Waikato Secondary School Championships last week in the Singles and Doubles. All involved had some great matches. We had success on the court, and a big congratulations to:

Singles Championship

• Peyton Cruickshank 14s Division Two Winner
• Isabella Wang 14s Division One Winner
• McKenzie Hussey 16s Division Two Winner
• Shannon Yu 16s Division One Runner-up
• Isabella Hussey 18s Division One Runner-up

Doubles Championship

Shannon Yu and Isabell Wang 14s and 16s Division One Winners

Volleyball

Our Senior A Volleyball team took home the bronze medal last weekend, taking 3rd place overall in the Premier Division in the Waikato Competition. This result is a massive achievement for the team, as it is three places up from last season. It gave them the opportunity to potentially secure a spot in Division 4 at Nationals this week, with the aim of playing in Division 3. 

Special congrats to Amy Thomas, who was also named to the tournament team and selected as the top outside of the Waikato competition. Amy has been named to this team for the past four years, so this is a massive achievement!