Sports News Term 1, Week 9

Term 1 has flown by, and for some of our Summer Sports, this is the week they have been waiting for.  With School Sport Canterbury Wednesday competition wrapped up, all focus is on tournament week. We have teams up in Cambridge competing in the Maadi Regatta, our Tennis girls in Christchurch competing in the NZSS Tennis Championship, the Touch team competed in the South Island Secondary Schools Touch tournament over the weekend, our Cricket girls are in Christchurch competing in the Canterbury Regional Girls 1st XI Cup, we have 3 Volleyball teams in two different tournaments, including our Senior A girls in Palmerston North along with over 200 other school teams and South Island Water Polo Champs in Christchurch to round out the action later in the week.

Thank you to all those families who constantly support our girls. Of course, none of this could happen without your ongoing support both at games and from home. 

Finally, a massive thank you to all the coaches and managers who have made this summer season possible. You give the SMC girls amazing opportunities to develop their skills regardless of whether they are on the team that needs the most development or the top team aiming for a championship. Your work with the girls at SMC is hugely appreciated.

Good luck to all the teams competing this week.  

As this brings us to the end of summer sport we see the start of our winter sport trials happening. Some junior teams have started their trials this week, with most teams having trials over the next couple of weeks so teams are sorted before the end of the term.   Keep and eye on your emails and student notices as information about trials and teams will be coming out regularly. 

Athletics
The Canterbury Secondary Schools Athletics Championships were held on Friday, 21 March at Nga Puna Wai. The following athletes gained qualification to attend the SISS Championships in Nelson 4-6 April.  Well done to all.

On the 1st & 2nd March, Lucy Gredig competed in the Canterbury Club Athletic Champs.  Lucy had a great day with some fantastic results, placing 1st - 200m, 2nd 400m, 4th -100m, 5th - High Jump, 5th - Long Jump, 5th - 800m.  With a total of 32 points overall.  Well done Lucy, fantastic results.

Basketball
Well done to the following girls for their Canterbury Representative Basketball teams selection.  Aine Leeson (Y13), Lucie Davis (Y12), Taylah Davis (Y10)

Cricket
Hot on the heels of Ciara Hartland’s Top Performance of the week, we have another SMC superstar who has been making waves in the cricket world.  Isabella Alexander-Stewart (Y10)  was named the top performer of the week last week.  Great job, Isabella; keep it up.

Equestrian
It was a fantastic day last Wednesday out at McLeans Island for the Canterbury Secondary School Dressage Champs.  St Margaret’s had three teams entered with two in each team doing level two and two doing level one.  The morning was a flurry of activity as riders and parents frantically prepared their horses after a very wet and muddy night. This paid off fantastically for Sammy Donovan (Y11), who won the Turn Out Prize for the best-presented horse.  With all four riders in each team riding at the same time, coach Emily was pulled in many directions.  Sophie Gibb (Y11) made an exciting entrance on the way to the warm-up arena, taking a fall off her horse, Leo.  However, Sophie bounced back amazingly and earned a 6th place ribbon at the end of the day.  With each rider getting to ride twice, there was always something happening and something to watch. At the end of the day, Lexi Patchett (Y11) received a 2nd and 4th place ribbon for her efforts. It was a great first performance from the teams with many riders stepping up to levels that they haven’t competed at before. Thank you to Leigh Ginnever for all her organisation of the day, Emily Cammock our amazing coach for all her hard work with the girls and horses, and all the families for their support, encouragement and teamwork to make sure that all girls and horses were ready to go. The next event on the calendar is the Canterbury Secondary School Show Jumping Champs on Wednesday, 9th April.

Teams
RED: Briar Sharp (Y10), Danielle Vickery(Y11), Lexi Patchett (Y11), Sammy Donovan(Y11)
GREEN: Jasmine Ginnever (Y11), Sophie Gibb (Y11), Maisie Graham(Y11), Georgia Hope-Pearson (Y9)
WHITE: Leilah Pukepuke (Y11), Emma Whitaker (Y11), Ruby Lemon (Y9), Grace Evans (Y11)

Gymnastics
Cherry Zhu (Y11) has continued her amazing efforts in Rhythmic Gymnastics, being selected to represent New Zealand at the 2025 Koop Cup in Canada.  Cherry has also been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2025 Australian National Championships in Australia.  What an outstanding achievement Cherry, we can't wait to see you shine.

Hockey
Year 9-13 Hockey Trials
Note - some times and venues have changed since our first advertisement at the start of the year.

Sunday 30th March, 3pm - 4:30pm, Yr 9s only @ SMC turf

Wednesday 2nd April, 3pm - 4:30pm, Yr 9s only @ SMC turf

Monday 28th April @ Nga Puna Wai #2
3pm - 4:30pm, 2024 1st and 2nd XI players and Yr 12 and 13 students
4:30pm - 6pm, Years 10 and 11 players

Wednesday 30th April @ Nunweek 1 (Groups to be advised on Tuesday 29th) 
Group D. 3:15pm - 4:15pm
Group C. 4:15pm - 5:15pm
Group B. 5:15pm - 6:15pm
Group A.  6:15pm - 7:30pm  

Friday 2nd May @ Nunweek 2
4:30pm - 6pm Final trial for a group of approx 25 players (to be advised)

Please email me if you are unable to attend trials, or have any questions, please email Wendy Shannahan
wendy.shannahan@stmargarets.school.nz

Indoor Netball
Over Term 1, we have had two teams competing in the Canterbury Secondary Schools Indoor Netball Competition held at Action Indoor Sports. Both the junior and senior teams had great success with a number of good wins. Thanks to the parent managers, Nicola Reeves and Charlotte McGuire, for your help in making these teams a reality.  We look forward to Term 4, when this can run again.

Teams:
Senior: Sammy Donovan, Miaki Green, Isabel Marshall, Maddie Thomas, Emily Finn, Isabella Johnson, Ruby Wells, Jessica Parker, Cameron Reeves, Sydney Alva (Y11)

Junior: Elise Earl, Annabelle Johns, Isabel Marsh, Sophie McGuire, Saedy Zeestraten, Sophie Prince, Honor McKenzie (Y10), Hannah Richardson, Gigi Parkinson, Caitlyn Ferguson, Mackenzie Williams (Y9)

Table Tennis
Over the weekend, Tracey Hsia competed in the TTNZ Regional Qualifier 2 + South Canterbury Open in Timaru and won both the U15 and U19 Girls’ Singles titles.

By securing the top position in each event at the TTNZ Regional Qualifier 2, Tracey has taken a crucial step toward the New Zealand team selection for the 2025 ITTF-Oceania Senior & Youth Championships. Her results also mean she has secured a place in Stage 2 at the South Island Individual Championships, which will be held in Christchurch from April 25-27, 2025.  

Super Touch
The South Island Secondary School Touch Champs were held 22-23 March at Burnside Park.  There were 14 girls teams competing.  SMC girls finished 4th in their pool play, with two wins, one draw and one loss.  A tough second day saw the girls finish 8th overall.

That concludes the Super Touch season for our girls who have represented St Margaret’s well, played some great Touch and improved immensely over the season. Well done, girls, on a great season. Thank you to Serena for her amazing coaching and to Stacey for all her managing and behind-the-scenes work.

Swimming
Sienna Choat, Gemma Scott and Kaia Hartstonge competed in the NZ Division 2 Swimming Championships in Auckland. 

All three girls had a great weekend with a whole raft of PB's and top 10 placings between them. Kaia had a superb weekend with several podium finishes. Gemma was 2nd in the 100 Fly, but unfortunately, the timing system crashed during her race and she had to re-race, only to come 4th by 0.09", showing great resilience to overcome this setback. 

Triathlon
Missed off our last newsletter was the achievements of Elza Harrington.  Elza competed in the South Island Secondary Schools triathlon held in Oamaru on the 2nd March, finishing an incredible 2nd place.  Amazing job Elza.

Volleyball
It has been a massive couple of weeks of Volleyball at SMC.  With 16 teams entered into Monday night competitions this term, we have had teams heading from Rolleston to Rangiora each Monday after school, as well as our own Year 9 in-house competition.  Last Monday saw the final round of these games for the term.  Our Senior Green team taking out Div 3 in the Premier grade and our Senior A girls taking out Div 1 Premier Grade.  With so many teams it has been a massive undertaking for the staff who have been our managers/coaches/drivers/organisers. Thank you to all the amazing teaching staff and parents who helped out with these teams to allow Mondays to be so successful.  

As well as Monday night competition, our three competitive Senior teams competed in the Canterbury Secondary Schools Volleyball Championships, on the 14th/15th/16th March.  Team Red had a tough start to the tournament with a couple of hard-fought losses. This, unfortunately, bumped them from the chance to progress into the top 8, but they finished a very strong 9th.  Team Green continued to improve again in this tournament and after two very close games on the first day, found themselves in the quarter-final the next day.   The result didn’t go their way. However, they then went on to win the remainder of their games finishing 5th and putting them in Div 1 for the South Islands Satellites tournament running this week.  Our Senior A team put on another outstanding performance, blasting their way through pool play before facing CGHS in the semi-final, winning 3-1 and setting up to face STAC in the final.  SMC took the early lead, but STAC fought back and took the game in a reverse sweep, winning 3-2.  It was a fantastic game to watch, with some outstanding plays and a nail-biting finish. Well done, girls on an amazing 2nd place.  Congratulations to Lulu Inglis (Y13), Delilah Brown (Y12) and Julia Mitchell (Y12) for being named in the tournament team.

This week the Senior A girls are up in Palmerston North competing in the NZSS National Volleyball Champs where they have gone in ranked 3rd seed.  The Red and Green teams are in Christchurch competing in the South Island Satellite Cup.  Good luck to all three teams, we hope you have a fantastic week of competition.  

Year 7&8 Sport

As the summer season comes to a close, we can reflect on an extremely busy Term 1  in the sporting world.

This term our wonderful Year 7&8’s have been busy settling into the school year and making the most of the opportunities available.

Weekly sports include:

Swim Club – after school on a Wednesday. Vee Hanna takes this group of keen swimmers.

Touch—Four teams train at lunchtime on Fridays, getting prepared for their games after school at STAC. Thank you to our student coaches, who help develop these girls and encourage them to improve and enjoy the game.

Volleyball—CVA has run a very successful programme on Wednesdays each week in our gym. It is great to see so many of our girls making the most of this opportunity, learning new skills, and having so much fun.

Water Polo – our 7&8 team play on a Monday night at Jellie Park. These girls compete in a mixed grade against teams with boys in them and do an amazing job and have improved their skills immensely.

School events have included Athletics Sports held at Nga Puna Wai and the SMC Swimming Sports in our pool. Both were great opportunities for some fierce competition alongside wonderful House spirit and support.

Triathlon - We had a team of 11 compete at the Canterbury Primary Schools Triathlon. An outstanding effort from our girls, with five athletes finishing in the top 12 of their year groups, which was an amazing achievement due to the large number of entries

Looking ahead to Term 2, we will have:

- Cross Country -our annual whole school Cross Country event will be held at Hagley Park on Wednesday 30 April. Parents are most welcome to attend. 

- Basketball - 4 teams will be playing on a Friday night at either Bishopdale YMCA or 

Wharenui.  All four teams will train at lunchtime in the gym on a Friday

- Hockey -  these teams will train on a Wednesday after school. Games will be played on Saturdays.

- Netball - our three Year 7 teams will play on a Wednesday at Nga Puna Wai, while our three Year 8 teams will be at Nga Puna Wai on a Monday. Game times for both year levels will be either 4.15pm or 5.15pm. Training times will likely be during lunchtimes. 

Parent help required: 

Netball - we are fortunate to have adult coaches for four of our six netball teams this year, but we require parents to assist at games, including doing the scoring app, so that the coaches can concentrate on the job at hand. We also require parent managers to assist the two teams who will have student coaches.

Basketball - parent help required at games

Transport - our girls require transport to and from their games, and if possible, take some extras. Our Boarders often require a ride.

Please contact both Alicia Davis (alicia.davis@stmargarets.school.nz) and Helen Belcher (helen.belcher@stmargarets.school.nz) if you can help fill some gaps.

UPCOMING EVENTS

2nd April - Canterbury Secondary Schools Swimming Championships

3rd April - Canterbury Primary Schools Swimming Championships

4th April - South Island Athletics Championships - Nelson

5th & 6th April - South Island Secondary Schools Korfball Tournament