It was a jam-packed weekend of sport for Maritzburg College, the Inter-House Athletics Championship setting the tone on Friday, 28 January; four long-standing records tumbling in the 100m and high jump. The school’s team fixtures were mostly against St Charles College.

The cricket summary is here
https://kzn10.com/noteworthy-win-on-goldstones-for-st-charles-first-xi/

Closely contested basketball games were the order of the day, with College winning 15 of their 18 matches, with wins for all the top teams and a 1^st team victory of 81-66. In addition, the College U16 side took part in a basketball tournament, going through to the final and finishing in 2^nd place overall. College emerged the victors 6-2 in their Top 8 squash encounters against St Charles, and the 1^st water polo team enjoyed a 12-2 victory against St Charles in the pool.

Justin Waldman Sports Photography feature photo: Maritzburg College’s Connor Henman in scoring mode during the Red Black and Whites’ 81-66 first team basketball derby win over St Charles College in a busy Alan Paton Hall at Maritzburg College on Saturday afternoon.

In addition, the boys of the RedBlackWhite also took part in Euro Steel Run the River (cross country), the Euro Drak Descent (cycling), and the Drak Challenge (canoeing).

Athletics
Maritzburg College’s 2022 Inter-House Athletics Championship, held at the athletics stadium across the campus in Princess Margaret Drive, saw some long-standing records tumble with outstanding performances from boys who gave their all for their houses.

One of the top performances came from Neo Mosebi, who Peter Kyle’s record (1974) of 10.60 secs in the U19 100m, with a time of 10.22 secs. Ilunga Kayembe, won the U17 100m record in a time of 10.84 secs. The previous record was 10.90 sec set by Peter Kyle (1974) and matched by N Ndlovu in 2019.

Records also fell in the field events as Ryan Stockhil cleared an outstanding 2.10 m in the U19 high jump, breaking the record of 2.00m set by Brett Balmer in 1984. Luyanda Kunene won the U17 high jump clearing 1.92m and breaking the long-standing record set by J Pienaar of 1.90m in 1997.

Cross Country/ Trail Running
The Euro Steel Run the Rivers 2022 was a muddy affair; however, the beautiful trails of the KZN Drakensberg foothills did not disappoint.  Three College boys took part in the two-day event, participating in the junior male category; 14.5km on Saturday and 8km on Sunday – the latter became 10km for many of the runners as there was some confusion on the track.

Results:
Scot Arnold – 2^nd in category/ 6^th overall
Riley Kleinhans – 4^th in category/ 21^st overall
Neil Deyzel – 5^th in category/ 34^th overall

Basketball

Saturday’s games at Maritzburg College were fiercely contested encounters, mostly against St Charles College. College’s teams did very well to win 15 of the 18 matches, losing just 3, with wins for all the top teams and a 1^st team victory of 81-66. In addition, the College U16 side took part in the Michaelhouse basketball tournament, finishing in 2^nd place overall to winners Kearsney College.

1^st team report (by Maritzburg College’s Zinhle Cele)

College’s 1st team came out with a lot to prove. St Charles is always a festive fixture, and this day was no different, with parents and fellow students out in numbers, the 1st team had a loud and lively support system. The first half of the game was a bit of a roller coaster with the lead changing hands between the two teams a few times. The team talk at half time seemed to unlock a renewed drive in the College boys which we hadn’t seen so far in the game. They played with urgency and gusto and quickly started to push a win further and further from St Charles’ view.

Caleb Janse Van Rensburg and Connor Henman both proved to be a problem for St Charles, dropping 12 points each. Onlookers were also treated to a superior performance from Mkhize who contributed the most points (16) to his side, as well as exemplary defence from Mthimkhulu. In the end, synergy and team spirit clenched the win for College.

Summary of Basketball Scores vs SCC:

1^st won 81-66

2^nd lost 17-25

3^rd won 31-30

4^th lost 23-29

5^th lost 11-13

U16A won 32-12

U16B won 22-17

U16C won 26-18

U16D won 29-5

U15A won 33-21

U15B won 27-12

U15C won 28-4

U15D won 30-0

U14A won 45-7

U14B won 29-19

U14C won 37-2

U14D won 13-3

U14E won 28-0

U16 Basketball Tournament

College’s U16 team won all but one of their pool games in the U16 tournament.

College vs SCC won 21-11

College vs Kearsney drew 23-23

College vs Michaelhouse won 21-11

College vs Invitational Team won 105-6

College vs DHS won 32-23

In the quarter finals they beat Westville 20-12 and emerged the winners against Michaelhouse 20-14 in the semi-final. In the final, they faced Kearsney and lost narrowly 25-29.

Canoeing
Several Maritzburg College boys took part in the 2-day Drak Challenge, well supported by College’s new coach and Olympic star, Bridgitte Hartley.

Results
U18
Joshua Glyn Cuthbert 7^th
Ian Hemmingway 12^th
James Goble 13^th
Kent Rhodes 14^th
James Sharpe 16^th
Chris Adam 22^nd
Ross Finnie 25^th

K2
James Odell 15^th

Ladies
Bridgitte Hartley finished in 4^th place in the ladies’ race and was the first sub-vet lady home.

Squash

Match Report (by Alan McGuigan – MIC Squash at Maritzburg College)

College came out the victors 6-2 in their Top 8 squash encounters against St Charles. There were several strong performances from the College boys; in particular Matt Mason (College’s no.2) & Shrivar Maharaj (no.1) who fought back from 1-2 & 0-2 respectively in their matches to both win 3-2.

In the KZN Junior Squash Tournament (individual event) held at Westville Country Club from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 January, College boys were placed in all three age categories:

U/19 Division:
Shrivar Maharaj – 3rd
Matthew Mason – 4th
Nikhiel Moodley – 8th

U/16 Division:
William Galliers – 9th
Veer Premchund – 13th

U/14 Division:
Talik Nana – 1st

Swimming
In the Hilton Invitational Gala, College’s A squad came 2nd to Kearsney by 3 points, while the B squad won their section of the gala.

Tennis
College’s tennis teams had mid-week fixtures against Hilton College and Michaelhouse.
U19 College A vs MHS B won 8-4; U19 College B vs HC A lost 0-12
U15 College A vs MHS A won 7-5; U15 College B vs HC B drew 6-6

Water polo
College fielded 7 teams against St Charles and Michaelhouse over the weekend; the 1^st team secure a 12-2 win.

 1^st team report (Darren Sherriff – Maritzburg College director of aquatics)

The 1st team game against St Charles started in a competitive fashion and College had a small lead of 2 goals at the end of the 1st chukka. St Charles got onto the score board with a penalty in the 2nd chukka, but College then extended their lead to 6-1. In the 3rd chukka, College managed 1 goal and St Charles pulled 1 back as well to bring the score 7-2. College came out firing in the last chukka and scored 5 goals bringing the final score to 12-2 in College’s favour.

 Summary of scores:
1^st vs SCC won 12-2
2^nd VS MHS lost 5-9
3^rd vs SCC 2^nd won 8-5
U15A vs SCC won 12-0
U15B vs MHS lost 0-14
U14A vs MHS lost 0-14
U14B vs MHS lost 0-15