Getting involved
The college prides itself on its sporting record and offers students over 30 different sports codes to complement their academic studies. Traditional sports such as athletics, netball, rugby, hockey, football, basketball and cricket share a place with equestrian, snowsports, multisport, golf, badminton and many others.
Our aim is to offer sporting opportunities to students of all ages and abilities, from social teams to national level with participation being the key focus.
The High Performance Programme caters for our elite athletes, many of whom pursue a career in professional sport.
Sports Director Chris Simm sports@taupocollege.ac.nz
LATEST NEWS
NZSS Open Water Swimming Championships, Lake Karapiro
The first ever secondary school national open water swim championships were held at Lake Karapiro the day before the NZSS Tri. This attracted a lot of quality entries from school all over New Zealand. Taupo nui were very well represented with 6 swimmers, Keegan Pook, Ellie Heenan, Claire Hume, Issy Sherwood-Clark, Brooke Taylor and Caitlin Taylor.
U14 Boys
Keegan Pook 1st Place and National Champion
U14 Girls
Caitlin Taylor 7th
Issy Sherwood-Clark 12th
Claire Hume 14th
U16 Girls
Brooke Taylor 8th
U19 Girls
Ellie Heenan 9th
Huge congratulations to Keegan on his National Title, and all the other swimmers who competed well with big fields in a new event.
Multisport
We must start with big congratulations to both Nicole van der Kaay in year 12 and Ellie Heenan year 13, who have both qualified for the Triathlon World Age Group Championships in Auckland later this year. Ellie has followed that up by winning her age group at the Xterra Tri at Blue Lakes recently and has qualified for the World Champs in Hawaii. Well done.
New Zealand Triathlon Youth Academy 2013.
Congratulations to Nicole van der Kaay who has been selected in to the NZ Youth Academy for 2013. This is a monumental achievement as there are only 4 places up for grabs for the whole of New Zealand. This selection is a reflection of Nicole’s talent, hard work and dedication to her sport. Well done Nicole.
NZSS Triathlon National. Lake Karapiro March 29th
We are very lucky at Taupo nui-a-Tia College to have so many talented athletes covering all the triathlon disciplines, the Tri Nationals is just one event were we get to showcase our talent. We took 29 students to the Tri Nationals on a very warm day at Lake Karapiro, the day started with the individual races with the U14 up first.
U14 Individuals.
Keegan Pook put in a valiant effort after his win in the open water swim the day before coming home in 21st Place. Issy Sherwood-Clake was in good form coming in to the race and performed very well finishing in 4th place only 12 seconds off 3rd and 30 seconds behind 2nd place, well done Issy. Claire Hume had a solid race to finish in 18th place in her first secondary schools national. Tayla Bilbie also in her first secondary nationals was very nervous on the start line with a very big field. Tayla started cautiously but raced well coming home in 31st place.
U14 Teams
TNT had 6 teams in U14 category more than any other School at the event.
Girls.
Caitlin Taylor (swim), Claire Hume (bike) and Issy Sherwood-Clark (run) 5th
Alice Orr (swim), Loren King (bike), Gemma Isaacs (run) 7th
Jamie Cudby (swim), Tayla Bilbie (bike), Holly Hickman (run) 10th
Matlida Fulljames (swim) Maddy Edwards (bike) Kayla Gavin (run) 11th
Issy Battell (swim) Sarah Clarke (bike) Olivia Dark (run) 14th
Well done girls lots of promise for next year.
Boys
Keegan Pook (swim) Jack Kersel (bike) Keegan Pepper (run) 13th
U16 Individuals.
Kyle Smith another triathlete in great form heading in to the Nationals had an excellent race coming home in 5th place. It was a great experience for Kyle who missed last year’s nationals with injury and he has another year in the U16 age group.
Nicole van der Kaay continued her race form with a very strong showing at Karapiro, first out of the water put Nicole in great position for the bike, however some drafting by the following bunch soon took Nic’s lead from her but she stayed with the bunch and was fourth out of transition to the run. After 2 laps Nicole had climbed to 2nd and looked strong on Alana Lythe’s shoulder. Coming into the final lap Nicole was hit by a severe stich which took the any chance of the win away. However Nicole never gave up and fought bravely to hold on to second place. Well done Nic.
Aisling Bowden had another good tri national with her bike leg being one of the top ten quickest. Aisling came home in 27th overall.
U16 Teams
Boys
The very talented team of Glenn Fraser (swim), Lewis Eccles (bike) and Kyle Smith (run) had a superb team race against some high class opposition coming home in 3rd place for a National Bronze medal. Well done boys.
Girls
Caitlin Taylor (swim) Jaymie King (bike) and Nicole van der Kaay (run) finished in 6th place with a good combined effort. Anna Hayns, Isla Sando and Ella Reardon finished in 10th.
U19 Individual
Ellie Heenan competed in the U19 category, the distances were a little short for Ellie who is a long course specialist, that said she had a very steady race and finished strong in 14th place.
Motocross
NZ No1 Hadleigh Knight Junior Motorcross Champion
During the school holidays Hadleigh travelled to Timaru to compete in the NZ Junior Motorcross Champs.
At the age of 15 Hadleigh is one of the youngest competitors in his age group, with the majority of riders near 17 and their last year in this age group. Hadleigh was tipped as a podium ‘maybe’ he was certainly the underdog to take out the title.
With 3 wins, 2 seconds and a safe 3rd place Hadleigh was crowned NZ Champion with a massive 17 point lead at the end of the event, and being a young winner in the age group he gets to defend his title again next year.
Hadleigh focus and commitment both on and off the bike do him a lot of credit and he would like to thanks the school for supporting him.
Well done Hadleigh.
BOP Swim Championships, Whakatane 4th April
TNT took a strong squad of 11 swimmers to the BOP swim Champs with some excellent results;
Results
All the events were timed finals the final positions are in ()
Taupo nui-a-Tia College
1 Battell, Isabella - Female - Age: 13
#4 Girls 12-13 50 Breast Finals NT 48.59 (10)
#24 Girls 12-13 50 Free Finals NT 33.96 (19)
#30 Girls 12-13 50 Back Finals NT 41.30 (15)
2 Brown, Megan - Female - Age: 14 -
#6 Girls 14-15 50 Breast Finals NT 48.81 (8)
#26 Girls 14-15 50 Free Finals NT 35.44 (15)
#39 Girls 14-15 100 Free Finals NT 1:19.34 (16)
3 Cordell, Matt - Male - Age: 14 -
#7 Boys 14-15 50 Breast Finals NT 46.91 (13)
#27 Boys 14-15 50 Free Finals NT 32.14 (12)
#40 Boys 14-15 100 Free Finals NT 1:10.64 (8)
#43 Mixed 200 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 4 Finals NT 2:15.38 (5)
#46 Mixed 300 Free 6x2 Relay - 'A' Leg 6 Finals NT 3:01.82 (5)
4 Cubdy, Jamie - Female - Age: 13
#17 Girls 12-13 100 IM Finals NT DQ
#24 Girls 12-13 50 Free Finals NT 33.37 (14)
#30 Girls 12-13 50 Back Finals NT 38.70 (8)
5 Guillemot, Jesse - Male - Age: 13
#25 Boys 12-13 50 Free Finals NT DQ
#31 Boys 12-13 50 Back Finals NT 44.48 (6)
#38 Boys 12-13 100 Free Finals NT 1:22.86 (14)
6 Hayns, Anna - Female - Age: 15 -
#12 Girls 14-15 50 Fly Finals NT 36.16 (10)
#26 Girls 14-15 50 Free Finals NT 32.25 (9)
#32 Girls 14-15 50 Back Finals NT 37.45 (5)
#46 Mixed 300 Free 6x2 Relay - 'A' Leg 3 Finals NT 3:01.82 (5)
8 McGrath, Heath - Male - Age: 13
#2 Boys 200 Free Finals NT 3:21.44 (22)
#5 Boys 12-13 50 Breast Finals NT 53.98 (16)
#18 Boys 12-13 100 IM Finals NT 1:47.39 (10)
#25 Boys 12-13 50 Free Finals NT 42.14 (20)
9 Orr, Alice - Female - Age: 12
#4 Girls 12-13 50 Breast Finals NT 46.01 (8)
#24 Girls 12-13 50 Free Finals NT 34.32 (20)
#37 Girls 12-13 100 Free Finals NT 1:15.37 (10)
10 Pook, Keegan - Male - Age: 13 –
#2 Boys 200 Free Finals NT 2:08.53 (5)
#18 Boys 12-13 100 IM Finals NT 1:09.72 (1)
#25 Boys 12-13 50 Free Finals NT 27.60 (1)
#38 Boys 12-13 100 Free Finals NT 1:00.61 (1)
#43 Mixed 200 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 1 Finals NT 2:15.38 (5)
#46 Mixed 300 Free 6x2 Relay - 'A' Leg 5 Finals NT 3:01.82 (5)
11 Sherwood-Clarke, Isabella - Female - Age: 13
#1 Girls 200 Free Finals NT 2:34.05 (13)
#24 Girls 12-13 50 Free Finals NT 32.05 (8)
#37 Girls 12-13 100 Free Finals NT 1:10.26 (5)
#46 Mixed 300 Free 6x2 Relay - 'A' Leg 1 Finals NT 3:01.82 (5)
12 Taylor, Brooke - Female - Age: 15
#1 Girls 200 Free Finals NT 2:21.15 (2)
#6 Girls 14-15 50 Breast Finals NT 40.12 (4)
#26 Girls 14-15 50 Free Finals NT 30.39 (2)
#39 Girls 14-15 100 Free Finals NT 1:06.02 (2)
#43 Mixed 200 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 2 Finals NT 2:15.38 (5)
#46 Mixed 300 Free 6x2 Relay - 'A' Leg 2 Finals NT 3:01.82 (5)
13 Taylor, Caitlyn - Female - Age: 13 –
#10 Girls 12-13 50 Fly Finals NT 36.59 (7)
#17 Girls 12-13 100 IM Finals NT 1:24.68 (13)
#24 Girls 12-13 50 Free Finals NT 33.91 (18)
14 Van Der Kaay, Nicole - Female - Age: 15
#12 Girls 14-15 50 Fly Finals NT 32.69 (1)
#19 Girls 14-15 100 IM Finals NT 1:12.05 (1)
#39 Girls 14-15 100 Free Finals NT 1:03.59 (1)
#43 Mixed 200 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 3 Finals NT 2:15.38 (5)
#46 Mixed 300 Free 6x2 Relay - 'A' Leg 4 Finals NT 3:01.82 (5)
Relay Seed Prelims Finals
1 Taupo - 'A'
#43 Mixed 200 Medley Relay NT 2:15.38 (5) 26
keegan Pook 13, Brooke Taylor 15, Nicole Van Der Kaay 15, Matt Cordell 14
2 Taupo - 'A'
#46 Mixed 300 Freestyle 6x2 Relay NT 3:01.82 (5) 28
Isabella Sherwood-Clarke 13, Brooke Taylor 15, Anna Hayns 15, Nicole Van Der Kaay 15
Taupo Total Individual Entries: 56 - Total Relays: 2
NZSS Team Yachting, Algis Bay 14th – 20th April
After many years of hard work and commitment from our sailing team we finally managed to field a full Taupo-nui-a-Tia College team at the Nationals. It is great to see young sailor’s coming through the College. The TNT National’s team is made up of the following students;
Nicholas Glentworth
Taylor Griffin
Keith Inglis
Scott Inglis
Joshua Monro
Finlay Norris
Daniel Wilks
The team performed very well at the nationals racing very well in strong winds beating nearly all the other schools at some point over the week. However when the wind dropped we were not as competitive. That left the boys with a lot of work to do on the final Friday in the 7th – 3rd place finals. The winds and other results were not on the boys side and they finished 7th overall, a fantastic achievement in their first national event as a Nui team. Big thanks to all the parental support to take the team away over the holidays. Thanks
BOP Badminton Teams Qualifier, Rotorua 1st May.
Mr Ball took 12 students to Rotorua Badminton Hall for the teams qualifying event, long day with 6 hours of play saw TNT Boys finish 3rd and qualify for the finals in June.
