Half-year sports round-up

SPORT

HALF-YEAR SPORTS ROUND-UP

The Diocesan Rowing squad travelled away to their first overnight regatta of the season to compete at the North Island Secondary Schools’ Championships at Lake Karapiro.

Gale force winds affected the first day of racing, with the afternoon’s racing being called off, meaning that the finals day format was changed, and the competitors raced in time trials to determine final placings.

Based on the time trials, we had 13 crews achieve top 10 placings and we also achieved a silver medal in the Girls’ U-16 coxed quadruple sculls with the crew of Rosie Wiseman, Alexandra Fletcher, Georgia Haskell, Imogen Worrall and coxswain Paige Rose.

We are extremely proud of how our team performed given the circumstances!

The squad also competed at the Head of Harbour regatta, which was split across two days due to gathering restrictions. While the second day of the regatta was delayed twice due to a tropical cyclone on one day and the regatta being classed as a location of interest the second time, we finally completed racing and came away with the Top Girls’ School points trophy for the second year in a row!

Our medal winning tally was: 6 Division – one gold medal, 4 Division – one silver medal, 5 Division – one bronze medal. We also had a number of crews place in Division 2: 4 Division – two first places, 2 Division – two second places and 1 Division – two third places.

The Maadi squad travelled down to Lake Ruataniwha in Twizel to compete in the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Championships, otherwise known as the Maadi Cup, over Summer Tournament Week. With the 2020 Maadi Cup being cancelled, this was the first time any of the rowing team had been down to Twizel to compete!

The team raced hard against some strong competition, and with limited racing available this season it was great to get the U-16 and U-18 Coxed Quadruple Sculls to the A final, and several crews to the B finals. The U-16 Coxed Quadruple Sculls with Rosie Wiseman, Alexandra Fletcher, Georgia Haskell, Imogen Worrall and coxswain Paige Rose achieved 6th place, with the U-18 Coxed Quadruple Sculls with Rosie Wiseman, Isobel Fletcher, Natalie Spillane, Alexandra Fletcher and coxswain Sophie Ryan achieving 5th place.

Our B finalists were: Natalie Spillane and Sofia Phillimore in the U-18 double (5th place) Rosie Wiseman, Isobel Fletcher, Alexandra Fletcher, Imogen Worrall and coxswain Sophie Ryan in the U-17 Quadruple Sculls (2nd place) Eva Pritchard, Eva Cope, Isabella Clayton, Harriet Hope and coxswain Paige Rose in the U-16 Coxed Four (5th place) Emily Cosham, Lucy Irwin, Xanthe Williams, Georgia Haskell and coxswain Sophie Coombes also in the U-16 Coxed Four (6th place) Sofia Phillimore and Sophie Collins in the U-17 Pair (2nd place) Jessica Barclay and Grace Allan also in the U-17 pair (4th place).

Rowing

WATER POLO

Our water polo teams had a busy first term with all our senior teams playing in the College Sport League, and we had three teams representing Dio at the North Island and national competitions. Our younger teams saw great development over the season, even with all the difficulties around COVID isolation. Our Dio Blue team came second in the Senior B grade and our Senior White team, the first social water polo team, placed third in the grade. Congratulations to these two young teams!

Diocesan Senior A and Diocesan Senior B placed first and second in the Senior A grade. The Premier team picked up the gold medal in the Premier Grade, making this the fifth year in a row they have come out on top.

Senior B played in the Division 2 North Island and national championships, winning gold at the North Island event and placing fourth at nationals.

Premier water polo team: Back - Georgia Daly, Ruby Helm, Sophie Gardiner, Ava Darbyshire, Lauren Batchelor, Millie Quin, Isabella Dalton, Kasey McDowall. Front - Louise Masefield, Vita Yarrell-Stevenson, Jenna Veal, Billie Frecker-Netten, Hannah Bell

Congratulations Senior B on an extremely successful season.

Senior A played in the Division 1 North Island and national championships where they competed against the country’s top teams. The team worked tirelessly through both tournaments and their improvements were tremendous. The girls placed sixth in the North Island competition and tenth at nationals after not being able to progress into the top eight.

The Premier team played in Division 1 at both championships. The Prems went all the way through to take the gold medal in the North Island final, beating St Cuthbert’s 10-1 in emphatic fashion. The girls continued this form all the way to the national final in Wellington where they met a strong and determined Rangitoto College who took out the final. With high expectations on their shoulders, the girls couldn’t help feeling disappointed, but being able to turn up year in and year out and fight for a national medal is something of which we are very proud.

Thank you to all of the managers and coaches who have continued to support the Diocesan water polo programme this season and good luck to all our senior athletes who are moving on to club water polo and other age groups.

SAILING

Our Dio sailors managed to get in two regattas over the course of the season. They raced in the Auckland 420 Teams racing regatta, where they were in a bestof-three race girls’ school final against Westlake Girls. Dio finished ninth overall and second girls’ school.

Then Dio had two boats compete in the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Keelboat Championships on the Waitemata Harbour. This was a completely different type of boat and skill set than what they usually use in a single or double-handed boat, but the girls made an excellent transition into the Elliott 7s (a five-crew boat), each having a crucial role on the boat. After a tough few days racing with very little breeze, our girls finished fourth and tenth in Silver Fleet.

Well done to Lucy Tucker, Mia Barker, Lizzie Shapland, Sophie-Jo Hawkins, Georgia Rae, Zara Tucker, Annabel Duff, Mielene Schuetze, Arabella Gimeno-Wood and Isla Barker!

SWIMMING

Six of Dio’s top swimmers competed at the College Sport Champion of Champions competition at West Wave at the end of the first term. The girls had a great day of competition racing against some of Auckland’s best schoolaged swimmers and they produced amazing results.

Grace Jeromson – 1st 50m breaststroke, 3rd 50m butterfly, 3rd 50m backstroke Alex Campion – 2nd 50m butterfly, 3rd 50m backstroke, 3rd 50m freestyle, 3rd 50m breaststroke Eva Allan – 2nd 50m freestyle

Our swimmers continued to have great success with many girls competing at the New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships in Wellington.

2022 swimming co-code captain and senior swimming champion Eva Allan won silver in the 100m freestyle, bronze in the 400m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 50m freestyle (16-years category). Alex Campion won gold in the 400m individual medley, silver in the 100m butterfly, 200m individual medley, and bronze in the 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke (15-years section). Grace Jeromson won bronze in the 200m breaststroke in the 14-years group. Anna Lepua placed fourth in the 200m backstroke in the 16-years category.

Frankie Dodunski attended the Division II New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships in Dunedin and won gold in the 200m individual medley and 100m butterfly, and silver in the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle.

In mid-June our Dio swimmers took part in the North Island Secondary Schools’ Swimming Championships in Wellington. The relay teams took out gold medals in the 13-18 years 6x50m freestyle relay, the 13-18 years water polo relay and the 16-18 years medley relay, finishing top girls’ school in relays on points. Individual medal winners were Grace Jeromson, Alex Campion and Eva Allan.

Champion of Champions competitors, from left to right, Anna Lepua, Eva Allan, Alex Campion, Kara Chan, Frankie Dodunski and Grace Jeromson.

Touch

The Premier Touch team finished sixth in the College Sport Competition. Led by code captain Gracie Thomas, this is the second year that the team has competed in the Premier Grade. There is a strong presence of Year 9 and 10 players, which bodes well for the future. Those players will continue to build on their Premier experience in Term 4 when they play in the Junior High competition.

TRIATHLON AQUATHON

Team Dio kicked off the College Sport season in style at the aquathon and found themselves on the podium in the individual and relay events throughout the morning.

Top placings were:

U-14 Girls’ Individual – 2nd Indie Williams U-14 Team – 2nd Diocesan Rockets (Celest Vo, Sophia Haines) U-16 Team – 1st Diocesan Magic (Alex Campion, Hannah McManus) U-18 Team – 2nd Diocesan City Thunder (Eva Allan, Lucy Shennan)

Gymnastics Sienna French continued her amazing school career during Term 1, picking up more national titles. Sienna placed first in the Open Senior Trampoline and the DMT, winning her the overall Senior title for the fourth year in a row. What a way to end her Dio career! Anika Wood also represented Diocesan and finished in fifth place in the Junior category. Grace Wellington came first in the NZSS Artistic Gymnastics competition and won the All Round competition. Well done girls – we are amazed at what you do!

ATHLETICS

Led by Dio’s newly selected Oceania reps, code captains Maddie Kelso-Heap and Lucy Shennan, Dio again showed their strengths across multiple events at the Auckland Champion of Championss athletics days. Our results were:

Junior

Jacqui Nasrabadi – 2nd 100m, 1st 300m, 2nd long jump Hannah McManus – 3rd javelin, 3rd 800m

Intermediate

Amy Shennan – 2nd 400m, 3rd 800m Chloe Luo – 1st long jump

Senior

Maddie Kelso-Heap – 1st 300m H, 2nd 400m Lucy Shennan – 1st 800m Amelia Greene – 3rd 1500m, 2nd 3000m Anei Todd – 1st steeple

TENNIS

In the midst of the Omicron outbreak our Dio girls rallied and produced some fantastic results to place first in four divisions: Premier (Pool A), Senior A, Junior 1 and Junior 2.

Chloe Rawlence placed second at the Auckland Individual Tennis Champs (Junior). Chloe is only in Year 8, so we look forward to following her future progress.

Chloe Rawlence

CRICKET

The 1st XI entered the Auckland 20/20 tournament during Summer Tournament Week. They played some very close matches but weren’t fortunate enough to make it to day three of the tournament.

Maddie Kelso Heap