A full wrap-up from Winter Tournament Week
At the New Zealand Secondary Schools Badminton Championships, the Premier team placed second after playing top seeds St Patrick’s College (Silverstream) on the last day of the tournament. The team won the fixture 5-1 and earned second place (Silver).
At the Junior Basketball Northern Regional Championships, the Under 15 Basketball team were named Northern Regional Champions on Tuesday after defeating St Peter’s College 92-82 in a hard fought final.
On Saturday, the Premier Basketball team played Westlake Boys’ High School in the semi-final of the Regional Qualifying Tournament, losing 71-69 in an exceptionally close contest. In the bronze medal match, the team played Rangitoto College. Rangitoto rode their momentum in the final quarter to lead by 10 points with only four minutes to go. However, the Premier team showed character and determination to overcome this deficit and take the win 71-69 to place third in the Northern Regional Championships. This result also saw the team qualify for the National Championships in Palmerston North in the Term 3 holiday break.
Over the course of the Northern Tour this past weekend, the Cycling team competed exceptionally well to record seven general classification podium places across all groups. The riders competed across an individual time trial, a hill climb, and criterium. Form 5 students J. A. J. Barclay and L. R. Bhimy each won both the individual time trial and the individual hill climb titles for their respective age groups. The team will now be turning their attention to Nationals, which will be held in the Manawatu in the first weekend of October.
At the National Fencing Championships, the team made a strong start to the individual foil competition with three members making the Top 16 in the country out of 60 competitors. In the foil competition on Saturday, individuals performed extremely well to improve on their qualification seeding to place second overall in the teams event.
On Sunday, the Sabre classification of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Fencing Championships took place. The team put in a strong showing with Form 5 student O. L Hannaford and captain J. S. Double reaching the top 16 in the country, with Double claiming a bronze medal in the competition. In the sabre teams event, the two Grammar teams earned fifth and sixth places respectively to round out the national tournament.
At the New Zealand Secondary Schools Football Championships, the team played St Bede’s College in their final match of the tournament. The team created a number of scoring chances against their opponents, but couldn’t convert any of these, leaving the scores locked at 0-0 at the full-time whistle. As this was a playoff match, the game went to penalties. Both teams traded goals and misses to start the shootout, with the contest eventually a sudden death scenario. On this occasion St Bede’s won 3-2 on penalties, meaning the 1st XI team finished 26th overall.
On Saturday, the 1st XI Hockey team played St Kentigern College for seventh place at the Rankin Cup National Tournament. The team conceded a first quarter goal and a second goal midway through the third quarter, which spurred the team into action to score in the last minute of the third quarter. The team pushed hard for an equaliser throughout the final quarter and came close on a number of occasions, but unfortunately it was not to be for the 1st XI, who lost 2-1 to finish eighth at the Rankin Cup.
The Under 15 Rugby team lost their semi-final to Christchurch Boys’ High School 23-12 and against Hastings Boys’ High School 24-20 in extra time, to finish fourth overall at the National Invitational Tournament. The match was an incredibly close contest with and the team were leading 17-10 with time up on the clock. Hastings scored a converted try in the final play of the game to force extra time. The team put the first points on the board through a penalty before a try to Hastings gave the opposition a four-point lead and the win.
The Premier Table Tennis team was named National Team Champions. The team had dominant wins over both Macleans College and Botany Downs Secondary College in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, before playing top seeds, Westlake Boys High school, in the final. The team performed exceptionally well win 4-2 against their favoured opponents and claim the national team title.
In the Individual Championships on yesterday, Form 6 student T. Choi won the National Under 15 title defeating fellow team member and Form 4 student P. Jajal in four sets in the final. In the Under 19 division, Form 5 student H. Han finished the tournament well to earn the bronze medal, and the School’s fourth medal overall, in a tense, four-set third and fourth playoff match.
The Weightlifting team had an extremely successful competition at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Weightlifting Championships in Porirua. All six Grammar lifters podiumed in their respective age and weight classifications, earning three gold medals (for Form 3 student D. E. Boyd, Form 6 student A. D. Lipscombe and Form 7 student F. J. M. Duncan) and three silver medals, meaning the team finished second overall to claim a national silver medal.
Congratulations are extended to all students who represented the School at regional and national championships, the first of their kind since 2019. Thanks also to the many staff members who gave of their time to coach, manage and mentor teams and individuals during these championship events, and in the seasons that led to the opportunity to compete regionally or nationally.