WHS Tennis - Fifth in New Zealand - April 2016

Wanganui High School Mixed tennis team finished fifth in New Zealand at the National Secondary Schools Teams finals at the Scarbro Centre in Auckland in April.  

The team of Paris Butters, Gabrielle Hiri, Sam Russell and Vitek Sosnowski, all Year 12 and 13 students punched well above their rankings in New Zealand.

High School had additional hurdles to overcome due to the difficulty in seeding because Wanganui tennis has limited opportunities to gain ranking points as the local club does not participate in many interclub competitions. This means that Wanganui teams tend to end in the toughest section of the draw, as was the case in this tournament where they had to play in the same pool in both the eventual finalists which meant that High School were never given a real opportunity to finish above fifth.

The elite teams from the private schools of St Andrew’s and St Kentigern unsurprisingly overwhelmed the valiant High School underdogs.

From then on High School showed their class.

They defeated Christchurch’s Burnside High School (the fourth biggest school in New Zealand) 5-1 having earlier dispatched Trident High School from the Bay of Plenty by the same lopsided total. Some notable performances were Russell and Sosnowski who beat a Burnside combination ranked light years ahead of them. Likewise Sosnowski eked an incredible tie break victory over the much higher ranked Liam Reekie from Burnside.

This tournament was the final year for High School’s Year 13 girls, Paris Butters and Gabrielle Hiri, to represent the school and they should be very proud of their contribution.

The team was ably managed by local tennis stalwart Dave Butters.

(Doug Ireton - TIC Tennis)