Main photo above: Zone 1 Premier Champions

The Basketball New Zealand Zone 1 Senior Qualifying Tournament saw the return of Westlake Girls dynamic guard Amy Pateman to the court.  Missing from their successful ISF World Schools Basketball Campaign earlier in the year, the 2025 University of San Francisco recruit spent most of this season on the sideline recovering from a gut-wrenching knee injury that she sustained at Nationals last year.

Bolstering an already strong line up, the defending National Champions began the BBNZ tournament in stunning fashion with a 121-29 win over One Tree Hill College before scoring another century over Carmel College, 112-22.  Their next game against St Kents was just as impressive, 104 – 44, before trouncing Northcote College,127 – 55.

Westlake’s first challenge though, came from Manurewa who slowed them to 72-47 and then the Takapuna Grammar semifinal saw the most points scored against them, 85-77.  The final was a dogged encounter against Manurewa which was littered with interesting umpiring calls and an overflow of emotion.

The lead changed frequently in the game with neither team able to extend its scoreline until the final 90 seconds when the Bronwen Davidson and Nela Fotu coached team, surged ahead to win 59 – 48 win and one again take the top qualifying spot for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship in October.

Junior School Zone 1 Girls Premierships:

Earlier in the week, a strong team of 11 students represented Westlake Girls at the BBNZ Zone 1 JUNIOR Premiership Tournament from 31st August – 3rd September at Bruce Pulman Arena. Under the guidance of Coaches, Chelsea Halling and Johnny Southey and Manager, Arielle Haythornthwaite the team also started impressively with a collection of convincing wins. They scored centuries against Baradene (138-10), One Tree Hill 110-12) and Pukekohe High School (111-22) and then in the semi-final they met Saint Kentigerns and won 92-34.  Facing Rangitoto in the final, a reverse of the Great Auckland Champs a week earlier, Rangitoto put up a strong fight, forcing Westlake to dig a little deeper and play a little tougher before winning 76-54. It was a superb performance by everyone involved and a special mention goes to the team’s other Coach, George Tapaatoutai who was overseas and unable to attend due to personal reasons.

As the largest secondary school’s sport, it’s not easy to qualify for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship.  For Westlake Girls, it’s been four years since we qualified for the Netball Nationals but after a committed and heartfelt UNISS tournament last week, the team is heading to Christchurch for it with the best schools in the country. One hundred and 26 teams participated at the Upper North Island Netball Champs over Winter Tournament Week with 32 schools north of Taupo competing to be one of the top six schools to represent the Upper North at the NZSS event from 7 – 11 October.

Westlake Girls tough draw resulted in a well-earned 5^th place at UNISS after facing the New Zealand Champions, Avondale College, in pool play, Howick College, the Auckland Champions, in the top 16 and then Mt Albert Grammar in a do-or-die top 8 clash to make the semifinals.  Losing three out of their 10 matches, the top North Shore team showed resilience and persistence to prevail over Trident College, 29-27, Kristin 32-30 and then Hamilton Girls 35-22 in their final attempt to qualify for Nationals.

Impressive and intense defense work from Year 11 student, Aaliyah Sina’au inspired her team and she was rewarded with selection into the UNISS Tournament Team which is reserved for the top 20 players at the event.

Westlake Girls has qualified for NZSS several times in the past with their best finish in 2018 when they finished runners up and then bronze medalists in 2019.  They are now one of 6 Auckland teams, Howick, Avondale, St Kents, MAGS and Epsom Girls to contest top honours in Christchurch next month.

Year 13 student Billie Morrison has been skateboarding for years and this year she was ecstatic to have made it onto the podium with friends and skaters, Jessica Ready and Millie Dunn.

Winning the bronze medal at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Skateboarding Championship was a big achievement for Billie as she was competing against the top national over 15 secondary school street skaters in the country.  Billie’s strength is park style skating, and with only two runs permitted, she had to plan and perfect her tricks instantaneously.

She credits the familiar venue for giving her an an advantage as Birkenhead Skatepark is her local where she skates every night. In the “best trick” attempts, she had to land something tougher than what she had performed in her earlier runs – which she did. Her highlight was landing the trick because she hadn’t landed in a year.  It was clearly the turning point that helped Billie to secure third place at the National Champs.

The Westlake Girls Equestrian Team had a successful week at the North Island Secondary Schools Championships. The team of five – Samantha Syme, Rhea Bourhill, Kaleisha Iremonger, Mikayla Gow and Neve Anderson competed against 89 other High School Teams in Taupo where the team competed in a variety of Equestrian Disciplines – CTR (10km trail ride), Dressage, Arena Eventing, Show Jumping and Show Hunter.

All the team members placed individually in the top ten in a variety of classes, resulting in 3rd Overall at the North Island Secondary Schools Team Champs.  Along with several special awards received by individual riders, the team won 3rd Overall Dressage Team and 2nd Overall Jumping Team.

Individual Achievements:

• Dressage – Level Two – Kaleisha Iremonger placed 3rd Overall on Fevola.
• Show Jumping – 80-90 cm – Samantha Syme Placed 1st Overall on Ngahiwi One Eye Surprise.
• Show Jumping – 70-80 cm – Kaleisha Iremonger placed 4th Overall on Fevola
• Year 11-13 Rider – Samantha Syme placed 4th Overall on Ngahiwi One Eye Surprise.

The students were excellent role models for Westlake Girls and a credit to the school. 

Westlake Girls Equestrian Team:

Neve Anderson – Our Silver Lining

Rhea Bourhill – The Little Prince

Mikayla Gow – Douglas Park Dexter

Kaleisha Iremonger – Fevola

Samantha Syme – Ngahiwi One Eye Surprise and Rednalhgih Galaxy Fleur Dior’.

With the loss of six players and a team that ranged from Year 9 right to year 13, the premier Lacrosse team enjoyed a great 2024 season. The leadership and support provided by the older girls to the younger players who are still learning the game and developing their skill sets is heartwarming.

This year the team worked hard to cement their place in Division 1 in the College Sport Auckland Schools’ competition, playing some fantastic lacrosse to secure some resounding wins throughout the competition, narrowly missing out on the playoffs for the top position, to finish 3rd overall at the end of the season.

The team came back to set the record straight at the Auckland Secondary Schools’ Championships held on August 22nd at Avondale Racecourse, where they won silver in Division 1.

The team then travelled to Te Awamutu for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship from 5-8 September, where, as expected, there were some extremely strong teams contesting the top spot. The Waikato schools are notoriously strong, and after 3 wonderful days which included some nail-biting games, the team finished in 8th place but second out of all the Auckland -based teams that attended the tournament.

A special thanks goes to coaches Holly P and Meghan K, and team manager, Lisa J.

Photo: Premier Lacrosse Team

Year 13 Squash Captain Lucy Cadness-Aspinall was selected for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Squash team to compete in a Trans-Tasman Test Series in Wellington last month. The team played the Australian States, and the 3^rd seed won all her singles matches 3-0 and along with her doubles partner, Erin Wylie from Otumoetai College, they won the doubles just as convincingly.

Overall, the NZ contingent was too strong for the Aussies and on the final day the NZ team beat the Aussies 25 matches to 5 to retain the Secondary Schools Trans-Tasman Series Trophy.

Lucy now moves on to Nationals and has been selected for the Auckland Junior Squash Team as number one girls’ seed and will compete at the New Zealand Champs at the North Shore Squash Club during the October School Holidays.

The Westlake Girls 1^st XI Football team competed at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Football Championship in Nelson with a very young squad, making them one of the youngest teams at the tournament. With 11 out of 16 players aged Year 11 or younger, and for many, their first time away at a tournament, the pool play phase started with a frustrating loss to Queen Margaret College from Wellington. However, from that moment on, the girls united superbly to beat Taradale, 7- 0 and then Waikato Diocesan 3-0, to advance out of the group.

In the first knockout round, Westlake beat a strong Otumoetai side 2-1, but then came undone in their quarter-final match against Epsom, with Westlake narrowly losing 2-3. The team bounced back in the next two games to beat New Plymouth 1-0 and secure a Top 5 finish after defeating Sacred Heart 2-0 win. This achievement is an outstanding result for the very young squad, giving Westlake a consecutive Top 5 finish for Westlake at the National Championship.

Premier Hockey

Our 1^st XI hockey team finished up their season competing at the NZSS Federation Cup/Marie Fry tournament in Hamilton last week.  Our team performed admirably, finishing up 6^th overall out of the 32 teams in the tournament.

The team came out firing in pool play, first defeating local rivals Rangitoto College 5-0 before defeating St Paul’s on their home turf 2-0.  A 1-1 draw against St Matthew’s meant the team finished undefeated at the top of the pool as they moved into the knockout rounds. After a 2-0 victory against Whanganui Collegiate to move into the Fed Cup quarterfinals, the team was left to face several of the Christchurch teams which have proved to be strong this year.  A hard-fought 0-1 loss against Villa Maria led to an exciting match-up against St Margarets College.  Tied 1-1 after four quarters, the Westlake team showed their pedigree in the shootout winning 3-0.

The final game of the week was the 5^th/6^th final against Rangiruru.  The girls played well as a team but were outplayed by a strong Rangiruru side, eventually going down 1-3 at the final whistle to rank 6^th in NZ.  This is an excellent result from a young team, and we couldn’t be prouder.

NZSS Chris Arthur Cup 

The 2^nd XI Hockey team headed to Dunedin to compete in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Chris Arthur Cup, designed only for a school’s second team, and they enjoyed a great week blessed with beautiful weather and some stunning plays. Unfortunately, losing one pool game early on, which the team should have won due to their dominance on the field, resulted in a must-win game littered with interesting umpiring decisions.  The loss knocked Westlake out of the semifinals and into the bottom eight playoffs.  In their 5^th/6^th matches, they faced another umpiring decision that influenced the result. They ended up settling for 7th place overall, which was not a fair indication of their performance over the week, but that’s tournament!  It was a fabulous week of hockey, with the students working together brilliantly as a team and playing their best hockey all season.

Thanks to parent Rohann Pienaar for the great photos.

The America’s Cup is touring New Zealand in conjunction with the Kiwi Cup Regatta and two Westlake Girls Sailors have been selected as part of the team to represent their sailing club, the Murrays Bay Sailing Club. On 2 September, Westlake Boys hosted the ‘Auld Mug’ in a special assembly, and the Westlake Girls Sailing Team was invited to join them.

Year 11 sailors Greta Satterthwaite and Emily Turner will team up with Sam Clarke and Finn Olson from Westlake Boys and Toby Dunn from Western Springs College to compete in the Kiwi Cup Regatta for Murray’s Bay Sailing Club during the first week of the October school holidays.  The teams will be hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and will compete in Elliot 7 boats as well as ‘camp’ in the Squadron Ballroom during the event, an unfamiliar sight.  At the end of August, the RNZYS created history by inducting its first female commodore, Gillian Williams, another unique occurrence. The Kiwi Cup was a fundraising initiative to help schools and clubs with various projects. It offered a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the America’s Cup in Barcelona as the ultimate prize. Following the Kiwi Cup Regatta, the Westlake Girls Sailing Team will ready itself for the Trans-Tasman Inter Dominion Series in the second week of the October holidays, where it will look to defend the Top Australasian Girls School title that it won last year in Sydney.