St Peter's and Dio win rowing gold

Waikato Diocesan and St Peter's Schools crews appear set for a profitable Maadi Cup regatta after grabbing a swag of golds at the North Island secondary schools rowing regatta at the weekend.

However, Hamilton Boys' High School had the gauntlet thrown down to them in the under-18 blue riband events by Westlake High School, with the visitors winning the boys under-18 coxed four and eights crowns at Lake Karapiro.

Waikato Diocesan comfortably triumphed in the girls u-18 eights final yesterday to conclude a hugely satisfying regatta while St Peter's, spearheaded by the impressive Ashleigh Hodge, were the big improvers and are also poised for a successful national championship regatta at Lake Ruataniwha starting next Monday.

Hodge won three gold and a silver during a hectic finals programme yesterday, being part of the winning St Peter's girls u-17 and u-18 quad coxed sculls crews and the u-17 double sculls while finishing second in eight minutes 32.82 seconds behind the highly regarded Claudia Hyde of John Paul College (8m 25.19s) in the u-17 girls single sculls.

Hodge, not surprisingly, described her regatta as "quite rewarding".

"We only finalised a crew for this one last week," she said after winning her third gold.

"I'll definitely by racing in three crews at the Maadi; both quads and the double. I'm not sure about the single yet, I've only done that twice so to get second behind Claudia was great – she's really good."

Last year at the North Island regatta St Peter's won a solitary gold – yesterday they stepped on to the dais to collect gold six times, with Hodge's crew-mate Georgia Perry also picking up three golds.

The Waikato Dio crew of Sarah Allen, Bayly Camp, Alice Kay, Emma Lunniss, Souzie Boerema, Lucy Wilshier, Miriam Morgan, Anna Reddish and coxswain Natalie Turton pulled away in the u-18 eights final to win gold ahead of Westlake, giving them their 10th A final gold yesterday.

However, Westlake took out the boys u-18 eights final when they drew away over the dying stages from the HBHS crew of Taylor Jacobs, Patrick Harrison, Daniel Bates, Nick Ross, Mackenzie Macky, Shaun Kirkham, Jason Stroud, Logan Rodger and cox Caleb Shepherd to gain the psychological edge over their fierce rivals ahead of their Maadi Cup clash.

Earlier in the day Westlake also triumphed over the HBHS crew of Macky, Ross, Stroud, Kirkham and Shepherd in a thrilling finish, with just 0.54 seconds separating the two crews in the u-18 coxed four final.

Hamilton BHS won both prestigious events at last year's Maadi Cup regatta but now have less than a fortnight to overhaul their rivals at Lake Ruataniwha.

Cambridge High School's Stefan Morrison overcame a shaky start to win the boys u-18 single sculls title on home water.

"I washed out in my first couple of strokes and was immediately a couple of lengths behind," Morrison said.

"But I didn't panic and told myself I was the only one in the race. I've panicked before and it hasn't help – this time I was relaxed and got it going.

"I got to the front with about 500 metres to go and just continued my drive through."

Morrison, coached by Don Baron, is in his first year of single sculling after rowing in a double last year with Ryan Goodson, who has shifted to St Peter's.

Goodson teamed up with Christopher Morrison to win the u-18 double sculls and was part of the gold-medal winning St Peter's crew with Morrison, Nicholas Pacey, Kieran Macdonald and coxswain Andrea Zorn in the u-18 coxed quad sculls final. IAN ANDERSON

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