Our rowers are on their way home today, exhausted and elated, after a great week’s rowing in Twizel. A number of crews made it through to the quarter- and semi-finals so can be very proud of their achievements.
Maadi Cup
Maadi Day 4
Wednesday was a tough day for our Maadi Cup crews Twizel at with rain and cold making conditions difficult for rowing. Callum McNally and Jack Foster were racing today in singles and double along with Angus Percy and Sam McRae in their double. The girls have quarter and semi finals too but rain has delayed some of these events. The plus side of all of this is that lots of study is happening!!
Maadi Day 3
Our crews had a good morning of racing yesterday with both quads finishing 5th, sending them through to repechages tomorrow. Annabel Maddock and Rosie Charge in their double and Callum McNally in the single have made it through to quarter finals on Thursday. Sadly, the wind picked up in the afternoon so after a lot of waiting and frustration the afternoon’s races were postponed until today. Our students’ resilience will be tested today with some tough repecharge races and it’s forecast to rain. Off the water all is well, although apparently the parents are struggling to understand some of the memes!
Maadi Day 2
A good day of racing in Twizel on Monday with crews progressing to quarter finals and repechages. More heats today for our girls’ and boys’ quads, girls’ double and boys’ singles. All are doing well and we even managed to fit in some study!
Maadi Day 1
Our twelve Maadi Cup rowers arrived in Twizel on Saturday. They had morning and afternoon sessions of light training on the water yesterday and a parade through the town. We wish them good luck for the first of their heats today!
Strathallan rowers
Our Strathallan rowers performed exceptionally well at the NISS regatta this weekend, this regatta had around 2000 rowers from schools all over the North Island competing for a place on the podium.
Our crews raced competitively through the heats and progressed through to 13 finals. This is a huge improvement on last year and a testament to the 20+ hours of training they have been putting in each week along with the dedication of their coaches, Charles Haggie and Mike Ruiteman.
Stand out results came from Annabel Maddock placing 5th in the A final under 16 single sculls, Jack Foster and Callum McNally placed 7th in the A final under 16 double sculls, while Annabel Maddock, Scarlet Billingham, Rosie Charge and Felicity Billingham, coxed by Luke Desmond, placed 8th in the A final under 18 Quad (and three of these girls are aged just 15!). Annabel and Rosie also made the A final for the under 16 double sculls. Scarlet missed out on making the A final for her single sculls race at this regatta but responded with a dominating win in the B final.
Our rowers are now undertaking their final preparations to be ready to compete at the 2018 Maadi Cup, being held in Twizel later this month.
Sporting Spirit
Students dressed in red, green, blue and yellow flooded Massey Park on Tuesday to take part in a variety of events to support their house at this year’s Athletics Day. Events ranged from the competitive such as high jump and shotput to novelty events like the sack race and gumboot throw, giving everyone the opportunity to take part. With the encouragement of their peers, students joined in, sometimes stepping out of their comfort zone, to earn points for their house. The SOS and student council provided drinks and sausages, and there was a constant queue at the ice cream van!
The atmosphere at Massey Park was fantastic, but perhaps the highlight of the day was the relays as we cheered for our friends, fellow classmates and house members to cross the line first.
There were some great individual achievements throughout the day and Angus took out the house trophy. Well done to all who took part throughout the day and congratulations to our age-group winners:
Senior Boys 1st Daniel Tilsley
2nd= Tristan Penfold and Duncan Campbell
3rd Harry Doherr
Senior Girls 1st Mckenzie Northcott
2nd Scarlett Billingham
3rd Eden Doull
Intermediate Boys 1st Maverick Hayes
2nd Matthew Swales
3rd Liam Nelson
Intermediate Girls 1st Charlotte Francis
2nd Briar Engelbrecht
3rd Stella Lynch
Junior Boys 1st Taine Cantwell
2nd Ryan Wood
3rd Josh Teague-Dolan
Junior Girls 1st Ella Grayson
2nd Siobahn Balle
3rd Libby Murphy
Y8 Boys 1st Ethan Foo
2nd Luke O’Connor
3rd Archie Camp
Y8 Girls 1st Annalie Malins
2nd Sophie Donaldson
3rd Sacha Chambers
Y7 Boys 1st Jeremy Foo
2nd Xavier Balle
3rd Ben Morgan
Y7 Girls 1st Abby Engelbrecht
2nd Georgia Lynch
3rd Kaide Toia
Year 9 Social Science Trip
Leadership Camp
The 2018 Student Leadership team had a great start to the new year with an awesome weekend away at YMCA Camp Adair, Hunua. The camp started with an exciting white water raft ride at the Vectra Whero Park in Manukau followed by two days of activities in the Hunuas.
The leadership camp is an opportunity for students to get to know each other and build a strong team spirit, which will most certainly be key to their success this year. We are all looking forward to what 2018 brings and the positive impact our Council and House Leaders will have on the Strathallan community.
IEL and Bridging students head to Auckland Zoo
This week our IEL and Bridging students went on a day trip to Auckland Zoo. Nisha Nisapulkathorn reports on their visit:
Auckland Zoo is a beautiful and natural place. There was a diverse range of animals from a tiny meerkat to an enormous elephant. The best part of the trip is when we saw a zoo keeper feeding the sea lion. This is because the sea lion looked really lively. It jumped up and swam around. Unluckily, we didn’t have a chance to see the capybara and Tasmanian devil. When we took a complete round of the zoo, everyone was tired, but we learnt many things about the animals. It was such an enjoyable trip!