SUMMER SPORTS ROUND-UP National, North Island and regional successes

Water Polo

The Premier water polo team continued Dio’s traditional successes in the pool during Term 1, winning silver at the Auckland Championships and National Championships and gold at the North Island Championships. Jenna Veal won tournament ‘Most Valuable Player’ in the North Island competition. Dio was the only school with two teams competing at this level. The Senior A team won the plate for the tournament (the highest they could finish), beating many premier teams.

Senior B also won silver in the Division 2 Water Polo Nationals, losing the final to Carmel College’s premier team in a penalty shootout. Senior C won silver in the Division 23 North Island competition. Overall, it was a very successful season. Thanks to Gabby Olopau for her hard work.

Christine Lewis, Premier team manager, won the Caltex Good Sport award at prizegiving. The Premier girls nominated Christine for her 15-plus years of service to Diocesan water polo. Christine is an outstanding manager who cares about our students and programme.

Premier water polo: Tyler Butler, Isabella Dalton, Georgia Daly, Ava Darbyshire, Billie Frecker-Netten, Lucy Gilleece, Sophia Jackson, Louise Masefield, Kasey McDowall, Ellie Millard, Jenna Veal and Vita Yarrell-Stevenson

Futsal

Our Junior A and Senior A futsal teams competed in the NZSS Futsal Tournament in Wellington in late March.

Junior A finished the round-robin in third place, and just missed out on a bronze medal in a hard-fought battle against Wellington Girls’ College. Holly Webster and Hannah McManus won joint ‘Golden Boot’ in the Junior competition, each scoring 11 goals during the tournament.

Dio Senior A was the only team undefeated in pool play, with just eight goals scored against them all tournament. They beat Mt Albert Grammar School in the semi-final, moving into the final against Wellington East Girls’ College, where they played skilfully but lost in the final minute, finishing the tournament with a silver medal.

Futsal Junior A: Sian Christie, Sophie Haines, Mia Hanton, Hannah McManus, Skye Murdoch, Mia Platt, Chloe Pollock, Abigail van der Meijden, Holly Webster

Futsal Senior A: Kate Beagley, Bella Cranefield, Eliza East, Gemma Kelly, Indigo Kirk, Sienna Kirk, Meg McKinnon, Sydney Sparks, Anya Stephan

The Diocesan rowing Maadi Squad spent Summer Tournament Week at Lake Kara¯piro for the 2023 Maadi Regatta (New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Championships) and came away with some great results.

With a total of six ‘A’ finals and seven ‘B’ finals, our whole squad raced through the week. The U-17 Coxed Quadruple Sculls with Rosie Wiseman, Eva Cope, Alexandra Fletcher, Imogen Worrall and coxed by Stella Benton won bronze –their first Maadi medal.

In the North Island Championships, the