MARIST CLAIM JUNIOR NATIONALS
10.10.2006 Marist finally captured the National Junior Mens Championship title with a thrilling 3-2 victory at the West Wave Aquatic Centre over Northsport A. The win comes after a break of 7 years and several silver and bronze medals.
It was the Clubs 4th National male age group win since 2000 – with wins in the 2002 Under 14’s, 2004 Under 16s and 18’s being the other 3 male age group wins – where the boys have made several silver medal plunges!!
Coach Kurt Goldsworthy, who is also Junior Men National Coach, was happy with Marist’s unbeaten run but is also a little disappointed that the guys didn’t score more goals. “We had more chances but poor execution at critical times meant that Northsport where able to stay in the match. “
Kurt noticed a general lack of fitness throughout the tournament. “I believe that Marist and Northsport where the finalists
solely because they where fitter than any other side. Most other sides had better 6 on 5 conversion than us (we scored
1 from 6 in the final) and where pretty solid at 6 on 6 but could not go up and down for 4 quarters at a time.”
Todd Lambourne, Matt Reid and Andy Sieprath captured the three goals. Andrew Sieprath also won the MVP Award and Matt Reid the most promising player trophy.
The Marist Junior Womens managed to grab the bronze medal with a 8-7 win over Maranui in the National Junior Womens final Sunday afternoon at West Wave Aquatic Centre.
The Junior Women shooting for their 4th National Junior Womens title in a row lost the Semi final to Northsport 6-7. Northsport went on to take the final 9-3 over Christchurch based QE11.
Frankie Snell (photo left) won the most promising player award at the medal presentations.
MARIST CLAIM BOTH JUNIOR NORTHERN REGIONAL TITLES
02.10.2006 Marist Red claimed both the Northern Regional Junior Mens and Womens titles in Friday nights finals at West Wave and Millennium Pools.
The Marist Red Junior Men played a close game with Waitakere till half time with Waitakere trailing 3-4 , but they unleashed in the second half to run away as 12-5 victors over the plucky Waitakere team who had ousted Northsport A 6-5 in the previous weeks semi final.
And the Marist Red Junior womens team confirmed their favouritism title with an emphatic 11-5 win over Northsport A in the Junior Womens Northern Region final.
Marist Blue lost both bronze medals games – the Junior men going down 0-13 to Northsport A whilst the Blue Junior women had a closer encounter losing 4-6 to Waitakere in the 6 team competition.
The teams are now in the final leg of their preparations for Club Nationals kicking off on October 5th in Auckland. Click here for the draw.