Whanganui High School North Island Secondary School Athletic Champs
Last weekend our WHS team headed to North Island Secondary School Athletic Champs in Hamilton. The team travelled and stayed with athletes from Cullinane and Girls College. It really helped build some Whanganui team spirit.
A huge thank you to camp mums - Faith McGregor and Rochelle Howard looking after our team!! 💚💛
Highlight of Saturday was Auguz Thongskul winning the intermediate boys long jump with a PB of 6.47m. He jumped so well and really pulled it out of the bag on his final jump after dropping into second after leading throughout the comp. He needed a huge jump on his final attempt and totally delivered. He then went on to run a PB in the 100m final of 11.17 to take out 3rd place.
Ethan Wells also ran a PB in the 100m heats and was stoked to run his first sub 12 sec with a 11.97. He followed this up by going under 25 secs for the 200m on Sunday with a PB of 24.67
The intermediate boys 4x100m relay team of Auguz, Ethan Wells, Reiley Thomas and Charlie McBride had another strong performance with a 45.81
It was great to see Charlie, Ethan and James McGregor make the 100m hurdle final, finishing 5th, 6th and 7th with all 3 running PBs in either the heats or finals. It was great to see such strong performances especially from Charlie and Ethan who are very new to sprint hurdles. Charlie thinks this might be his new jam.
Kaylee Bischoff ran a seasons best 12.34sec 80m hurdles to take 4th place in intermediate girls
We also had 4 high school boys in the 300m hurdle final Lucas, Charlie, Bruce and James who finished 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th. Lucas was unlucky to just miss third after clipping the final hurdle.
We had strong runs from James, Charlie and Bruce McGregor in the 400m and our intermediate boys 4x400m relay team was looking really strong. After 2 hard days of competition though we had 2 of our runners plus one of our reserves out with injury. However, Bruce, Alex and Sean teamed up with Presley Bretherton to run an impressive 3.53.39. An especially gutsy performance from both Alex and Sean who less than an hour earlier had both run PBs in their 1500m.
In the 800m both Alex and Sean Frieslaar ran PBs and realised their goal of running a sub 2.10. Alex ran an especially impressive 2.06.50 and Sean a 2.09.85. They once again impressed on the Sunday in the 1500m with Sean running a huge PB of 4.21.81 and Alex impressing in his return to this longer distance with a 4.35.26. It was great to see that all that speed work has been paying off.
Lulu Dufty and Lucas Howard both made top 8 in the triple jump, Lulu choosing to retire though. Lucas did a great job being very new to this event, in fact this was only his third time triple jumping and his first time at competition level. Its exciting to see what he might jump with some practice behind him.
Lulu Dufty just missed top 8 in her long jump coming in 9th.
Amy Davidson ran well in her 100m and had a blistering run in her 200m for a PB of 27.93
Logan Joubert jumped well clearing 1.65 in the high jump.
Reiley Thomas jumped 5.19 in the long jump.
It was an extremely high standard of competition and everyone enjoyed being able to mix it up in such competitive fields with nearly everyone managing a PB over the weekend. A huge thank you to Greg and Elaine for all the hard work you do not only in getting the team ready for North Islands but also for building a wonderful supportive culture within the team. Bring on New Zealand Secondary Schools in December.
9/4/25