ACG Parnell College

Senior Sportsman of the year - Harry Shi

Harry has displayed skill and commitment in both Badminton and Handball this year. He has been a valued and committed member of the school’s Premier Badminton team which competes in the highly competitive Auckland Premier Grade. Harry also represented the school in the Auckland Badminton Championships where he placed third in the Senior Boys Doubles event.

In Handball, Harry is an Auckland Representative player, and this year represented the region at the Open Youth U20 Handball Championships where the team placed second. Harry was selected as the best ‘pivot’ player of the tournament by the National Team coaches and was named in the tournament team. Furthermore, Harry was invited to training camps with the New Zealand Handball Youth Team.

Harry also represented the school at the College Sport Auckland Duathlon Championships in the Senior Boys Team event where he completed the running legs of the event and placed fourth.

Senior Sportswoman of the Year - Sienna Goldstone

Sienna has shown ability in a wide range of sports this year including football, tennis and weightlifting. Sienna is a talented football player who was awarded the Senior All Rounder award this year for not only her skill, but her dedication towards the sport where she was also coach of the team. She was nominated for and selected as one of three finalists at the prestigious College Sport Auckland Young Sportsperson of the Year Awards for the Student Coach of the Year category.

Sienna was also a member of the Senior Girls Tennis team that placed third in the Auckland A3 grade this year and competes for the Pompallier Tennis Club’s U18 team. However, it is in Weightlifting where most of her attention has been this year as a first-year weightlifter. Sienna competed in various Central Weightlifting Academy Club competitions and represented the school at the College Sport Auckland Championships. She also competed in Wellington at the New Zealand Secondary School National Championships where she placed first in the Clean and Jerk and second in the Snatch with her weight totals placing her second overall in her weight class.

Junior Sportsman of the year - Hamish Young

Hamish has displayed a high level of skill this year in a range of sports including football, basketball, table tennis, volleyball and futsal. In football, Hamish was a member of the school’s Football Academy where his versatility and skill saw him selected as the team's Most Valuable Player, despite playing up an age-group, and he was also awarded the Junior All Rounder award.

Hamish is also very talented in the sport of Volleyball and was pivotal to the success of the Junior A team this year that placed third. He has a high all-round ability and understanding of the game, and, as Captain, bought a consistent and calming approach when matches got tense. Hamish was also a member of the U15 Basketball team and was a key member of the A3 Grade Table Tennis team that placed first in the term 2 inter-school competition and were promoted to the A2 grade for term 3. Outside of school, Hamish competes in futsal at both an U15 and U17 level with his team winning the Auckland Futsal U15 and U17 A1 title.

Junior Sportswoman of the Year - Ayumi Moriyama-Picard

Ayumi is a natural sportswoman, representing our school in four codes this year. She was a member of the Girls Football team and represented the school at the College Sport Auckland Road Race Championships. In Cross Country, Ayumi placed second at Eastern Zones for Year 7 girls, qualifying her for the Auckland Championships where she placed 15th. Ayumi is also the ACG Parnell Year 7 Girls Cross Country Champion.

However, the majority of Ayumi’s time is spent competing in the sport of table tennis. Ayumi is currently ranked 1st in New Zealand for U15 Girls, 4th for U19 Girls and 5th for Open Women. She is a member of the New Zealand U13 squad, and this year was selected to compete at the Oceania Table Tennis Hopes Week and Challenge. She is also a member of the Auckland U13, U15 and U19 representative sides with the U15’s being crowned North Island Champions and the U19 side, national champions. Ayumi is also the National Champion for U13 Girls Singles, girls doubles and mixed doubles as well as U15 Girls doubles. She also placed 2nd in U15 Girls singles and 3rd in the U21 women's singles at nationals. For school, Ayumi was a member of the A2 Grade team that placed first in the College Sport Auckland competition as well as first at the Auckland Team Championships. She placed third in the A-Grade singles at the College Sport Auckland Individual Championships, defeating male Auckland Senior Representative players along the way. At the New Zealand AIMS Games, Ayumi was a member of the gold medal winning team, won the mixed doubles and placed runners up in girls' singles.

Excellence in Sport - Cameron Karpik, Swimming

Cameron has excelled in the pool this year, dominating his age-group in the Breaststroke events. At the Swimming New Zealand National Age Group Championships, Cameron placed first in the 50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke events. Cameron’s best performances of the year were at the Swimming New Zealand Short Course Championships where he also placed first in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events. His performances in the 50m and 100m races saw him break the New Zealand Age Group records. He is also now currently the fastest ever 13-year-old 50m breaststroker in Australasia, beating all previous times, including a record time set by current Olympic Gold medallist, Zac Stubbelty Cook.

For school, Cameron was crowned New Zealand Secondary Schools Champion for 50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke, North Island Secondary Schools Champion for 50m and 100m Breaststroke as well as the 100m Individual Medley. He is also the College Sport Auckland Junior Boys Breaststroke Champion.

Service to Sport - Ella Nelson, Netball

Ella has made a significant contribution to the sport of Netball at our school. Ella has been a team member of her year groups top teams right the way through from Year 7 to Year 13, including being named team captain for five of those years. For the past two years, Ella has shown significant improvement in her leadership qualities captaining the Senior A side as well as through coaching and umpiring. She has been a regular umpire for both the Senior B Team and Year 9 and 10 teams of which she also coached this year. Ella’s netball knowledge and communication skills have allowed her to make the right calls confidently and consistently, which is a by-product of her effort and experience gained through umpiring. For the past two years, Ella has been consistently first every week to put her hand up to umpire our netball teams on a Saturday morning.

Away from the Netball courts, this year, Ella was also the co-leader of the Senior School’s Sports Committee and was instrumental in organising the very successful Staff vs Leaver's series.

Senior Team of the Year - Air Pistol Shooting

This year John Zhu, Charles Lu and Fangfei Zhao represented ACG Parnell at the National Secondary Schools Air Pistol Championships. Competing in an open-age group, the trio came away with the McMillan Cup as overall national team champions for 2022 with a record-breaking team score. John was awarded the trophy for highest overall individual score, while Fangfei was awarded top scorer for the U15 category and second top scorer overall, behind John. Charles was runner-up top scorer for U15’s.

Junior Team of the Year - AIMS Games Table Tennis

The New Zealand AIMS Games is the National Sporting Championships for Intermediate and Middle School aged athletes. This year, our Table Tennis Team consisting of Ayumi Moriyama-Picard, Oscar Jiang, Victor Li and Andy Wu, swept aside all on-comers to win the gold medal. After winning all three group games 5 nil, the team defeated Otumoetai Intermediate 5 nil in the quarterfinal and Bucklands Beach Intermediate 5 nil in the semi-final. The teams’ gold medal match was against Saint Kentigern College where they again won 5 nil meaning they did not lose a single set in any of their matches. A truly impressive feat that was matched by incredible sportsmanship throughout.