Sports News 8 February

Welcome back to SMC and we hope you all had an enjoyable break. The SMC Sport sign-up was a huge success with students spoilt for choice with over 30 sports to choose from.  The SMC Sport Handbook was distributed over the summer break, outlining each sport code that SMC supports. This is helpful for students and families to plan dates in your diaries. 

Summer sport trials are well underway and competitions will all commence in the next 2 weeks. The rowers have been busy all summer, training hard and competing in the Canterbury and South Island Club Champ Regattas. 

Starting the year off with a bang! Congratulations to Hannah Millar and Julia Mitchell who are the NZSS Beach Volleyball Champs! The girls took away the Gold Medal in the Year 11 Girls' Grade. SMC is very proud of your achievement.

Please send any sporting news and achievements through to sport@stmargarets.school.nz as we love to hear what our girls are getting up to both in and outside of school!

Athletics
We had a team of 10 athletes competing in the 50th NZSS Athletics Champs, held in December 2023 in Christchurch. An amazing three days of competition for our track athletes. Christchurch put on great weather until we got to the Sunday morning when the heavens opened and our Road Race team had to run in very wet conditions. They still managed to come away with a gold medal in the 6-person team, and a bronze medal in the 3-person team. 

The highlight of the weekend was a silver medal in the Senior 4 x 400m relay. A great way for our Captain of Athletics Alex Rees-Thomas to end her Athletics journey at SMC - Alex has represented SMC at NZSS every year since Year 9. 

Full results:
Senior 800m - Samantha Lascelles 3rd
Senior Road Race - 6 Person Team 1st: Isabelle Harrison, Anna Babington, Gemma Sitjes, Amelia McMath, Katherine Babington, Sophia Butler
Senior Road Race - 3 Person Team 3rd: Isabelle Harrison, Anna Babington, Gemma Sitjes
Senior 4 x 400m - 2nd: Alex Rees-Thomas, Elsie Seeto, Isabelle Harrison, Samantha Lascelles

Year 7-13 Athletics Tuesday 13 February
Next Tuesday 13 February we are running our Year 7-13 Athletics Day event at Nga Puna Wai. Bus transport will be provided both to and from Nga Puna Wai. All boarders and any day girls that require transport have been asked to sign up for the bus through their tutor. The buses will leave by 8.00am from outside the boarding house and will return by 3.30pm. 

All girls must be prepared for the day - House clothes may be worn to and from the event. No additional items or adornments are to be worn. Nothing can be dropped onto the ground. Please ensure your daughter has a sunhat, sunscreen, water bottle and lunch for the day.

A copy of the programme and information is included in this newsletter. We welcome any parents that would like to attend on the day.

Quadrangular Exchange - Billets Needed
SMC is hosting the annual Summer Quadrangular tournament this year from Sunday 25 - Tuesday 27 February and we are seeking expressions of interest from the St Margaret’s College community to support us with the hosting of billets from St Hilda's Collegiate School, Craighead Diocesan School, and Columba College. We need as many beds as possible so if you can help out with one or more billets we would love to hear from you. 

It would involve: 
meeting the girls at SMC at 5.30pm on Sunday 25 February
providing a bed for the two nights
providing breakfast x 2, lunch x 1, dinner x 2

You can be at any year level (Junior, Middle, Senior) and do not need to be involved in any particular sporting code.
If you could help us out please get in touch with helen.belcher@stmargarets.school.nz or phone 0274 307168.

Rowing
The SMC Rowing Crew entered teams to compete at the South Island Club Champs held at Lake Ruataniwha in January. Congratulations to all those who competed. 
Gold 
U17 8  - Coco Flood, Aine Leeson, Belize McQuarrie, Olivia Hawkes, Lucy Tod, Tilly O'Donnell, Anna Rutherford, Ava Readman - Bella Harris
U19 2- #1 - Lilah Stallard, Phoebe Wilson
U17 4 #1 - Coco Flood, Aine Leeson, Belize McQuarrie, Ava Readman - Neve Cassidy

Silver
U19 8 - Anna Rutherford, Olivia Hawkes, Charlotte Brown, Nina Oliver, Lucy Tod, Sophia Tuck, Jessica Brown-Shi, Lucy Farrell - Sarah Farrell
U15 8  - Sophia Cathro, Lucy Butterfield, Annabel Glengarry, Estelle Letton, Tilly O'Donnell, Isabella Green, Josie Kennedy, Ella Drummond - Bella Harris
U15 Oct - Millie Bocock, Molly Tyler, Georgie Todhunter, Isabella Green, Sophie Mitchell, Jada Montgomery, Annabel Scott, Chloe van Vianen - Sarah Farrell
Club 4- India Broomhall, Lilah Stallard, Evie Leeson, Phoebe Wilson

Bronze 
U16 4  - Anna Rutherford, Tilly O'Donnell, Charlotte Brown, Lucy Farrell - Maggie Tyler
U17 4 #2 - Charlotte Brown, Olivia Hawkes, Lucy Tod, Sophia Tuck - Emily Fitzsimmons
Nov 4 #1 - Izzy Brook, Bronny O'Sullivan, Sophia Cathro, Ella Drummond - Bella Harris
U16 8 - Anna Rutherford, Tilly O'Donnell, Charlotte Brown, Estelle Letton, Lucy Butterfield, Tilly Rookes, Sophia Cathro, Lucy Farrell - Neve Cassidy
U19 4 #2 - Coco Flood, Aine Leeson, Belize McQuarrie, Ava Readman - Ellie Scotland
U19 2- #2 - India Broomhall, Evie Leeson

Volleyball
Waitangi weekend will be remembered for another St Margaret's College national championship! We took 4 teams of beach volleyballers up to the NZSSBVB competition in Mount Maunganui over the weekend and came away with a gold medal in the Year 11 competition. Intense determination from Hannah Millar and Julia Mitchell saw them win the title with a tough, full day of competition.

The girls played disciplined volleyball in the heat and wind and we are very proud of all our results. We also managed to fit in some pre-season match play with Tauranga Girls College and Cashmere High School, plus the beautiful walk around Mauao - Mount Maunganui. 

Final placings
Year 11
1st  Hannah Millar + Julia Mitchell
Div 1 Y12/13
13th Annie Francis and Lulu Inglis

Div 2 Y12/13
5th= Delilah Brown and Danielle Mitchell
16th Aneria Salt and Arabella Russell