The Westlake Girls snowboarding team made it three in a row at the 2023 Auckland Secondary Schools Snowboarding Championship last week. For the last three years the well drilled team has been the top Girls Snowboarding team in Auckland. Led by Onewa Sports Prefect, Harriet Gowing, they won the overall Slopestyle and Race categories to win overall school championship once again.
Gowing finished as the fastest racer on the slope winning the Senior Girls Race Championship and Year 11 Meadow Mauger collected the bronze medal for the school. Ella Gregory, impressed in the Junior Race category, winning the Junior championship for the first time. The Year 10 student’s performance cemented the overall title for Westlake Girls in the Slopestyle event of jumps and turns, Naomi Nishida won bronze in the Senior category, then Harriet Gowing and Meadow Mauger joined her on the podium to win overall Slopestyle gold medal for Westlake Girls.
The Snowboarding team’s impressive medal haul reflects their commitment to training over the last 5 years. In their first-year season together, they finished 5th at the 2019 Auckland champs, and over the past 4 years they have won 3 consecutive titles. The team is now focused on the North Island Secondary Schools Championship at Mt Ruapehu in September, however, due the uncertainly of the mountain’s fields opening at the moment, the more challenging South Island Secondary Schools Championship may be a more reliable option as a pseudo New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship.