College water polo teams hit form at SI championships
The victorious Marlborough Girls' College contingent at the SI junior champs. Rear, from left, Amy Wong (manager), Hayley McCormick, Koko Wong, Izzy Robertson, Katie Pugh, Carys McNabb, Jaimie Elrick, Mia Lindfield, Paul Sell (coach). Front, from left, Gabby Miller, Katie Marsh, Chloe Sell, Violet Speakman. Photo supplied.
Marlborough college water polo teams excelled at last weekend’s South Island junior secondary schools championship in Christchurch.
Both the Marlborough Girls’ and Boys’ College teams achieved the best results in their history, MGC winning their division and MBC finishing as runners-up.
MGC were impressively dominant during pool play and remained undefeated as their superior fitness and ball-handling skills came to the fore. Having qualified for the semi-final, they faced Christchurch Girls’ High School and continued in similar fashion, running out 16-4 winners. In the final they faced Villa Maria in what turned out to be a tense encounter. MGC led 2-0 after the first quarter, but by half-time trailed 2-3. They fought their way back into a 4-3 lead at the end of the third quarter which, after a nail-biting, goal-less fourth quarter, was the final score. Koko Wong was named most valuable player in the girls’ tournament.
MBC’s path to the final was a tough one, coming through in a couple of very tight matches against Burnside and St Andrew’s, prevailing 7-5 and 6-5 respectively. Their last pool game was against St Bede’s, the champions for the last two years, and resulted in a 6-12 loss.
Their semi-final was a rematch against Burnside and ended in another narrow win – MBC getting up 8-7. Up against St Bede’s in the final MBC made a strong start, leading 4-2 going into the final quarter. St Bede’s fought back to level the game in the last nerve-jangling minutes of the game, then prevailed 4-3 on penalties to take the title.