This event happened after our final newsletter for 2025, but we’d love to celebrate it anyway! In December 2025, we had a triple gold for Westlake Girls at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Championship.
Dominating her competition at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Championships in Hastings, former Year 13 student Karmen Maritz did the double and was crowned the New Zealand Secondary Schools Discus and Shot Put Champion. The Westlake Girls’ Philips Cup recipient for top academic and sporting achievement excelled in both the Senior Girls Discus and Shot Put events.
Karmen secured the gold medal in the Discus with an impressive throw of 45.65 metres, finishing ahead of Tauranga Girls’ Ruby Jones, who claimed silver with a throw of 42.58 metres. Karmen then went on to outclass Paige Fletcher of St Kentigern College in the Shot Put, achieving a winning throw of 15.09 metres, well ahead of Fletcher’s 13.31-metre effort.
For the first time, congratulations also go to the young Westlake Girls Junior 4 × 100m Relay Team, who won the Girls Final ahead of a fast-chasing field. The 2025 team of Elizabeth Plaistowe, Miya Riseborough, April Peita, and anchor Sadie Bishop, finished in a time of 51.79 seconds, followed by a photo-finish battle for silver between Villa Maria College, Whanganui Collegiate, and St Peter’s School, Cambridge with 53.15, 53.54 and 53.70 respectively.