SSC swimmers haul 26 medals

Saipan Swim Club collected 26 medals from the 2008 Guam International Swim Meet held over the weekend at the Hagatna Swimming Pool.

Grace Kimball led SSC’s medal rush with her seven first place finishes.

The 13-year-old Kimball won in the 50m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 50m freestyle swims in the girls’ 13 to 14 age group.

Kimball bested four other swimmers from Tsunami Guam, Typhoon, Manukai, and the Marlins in the 50m freestyle timing in at 32.01 seconds.

In the exhausting 400m freestyle swim, Kimball (5:23.40) finished the race more than two minutes ahead of Manukai’s Phoebe Zhang (7:54.30).

In the 100m freestyle, Grace clocked in at 1:12.18, 1:29.82 in the 100m backstroke, 2:33.95 in the 200m freestyle, 1:41.45 in the 100m breaststroke, and 40.85 seconds in the 50m backstroke.

Abigail Martinsen returned to Saipan with seven medals, too. The Saipan Community School student had two gold, four silver, and one bronze medals.

The 10-year-old Martinsen topped the girls’ 9-10 200m freestyle outracing six other participants with her time of 2:55.06. She won her second gold medal in the 400m freestyle (6:07.68).

Martinsen was runner-up in the 50m backstroke (50.23 seconds), 100m backstroke (1:45.24), 100m butterfly (1:43.10), and 100m freestyle (1:22.99). Her lone bronze medal came from the 200m individual medley (3:34.27).

Grace’s brother, Andrew, went home with four medals, while Victoria Chentsova pocketed three, and Maxi Braig claimed two.

The 11-year-old Andrew bagged two silver and two bronze medals finishing second in the 200m freestyle (2:49.10) and 400m freestyle (5:56.24), and third in the 100m butterfly (1:59.74) and 200m IM (3:25.99).

The 10-year-old Chentsova was runner-up in the 50m butterfly (46.83 seconds) and 50m freestyle (37.95 seconds), and third in 200m freestyle (3:04.22).

Braig won in the boys’ 9-10 50m butterfly (39.37 seconds) and finished second in the 50m freestyle (34.36 seconds).

“Grace was very impressive with her swims, topping seven races. Overall, SSC swimmers did great and the hard work they had shown in our regular training sessions paid off,” SSC coach Mike Villagomez said.

“This [winning 22 medals] is a great boost to SSC swimmers as they hope for great performances next year,” he added.

SSC sent seven swimmers in Guam last weekend. The list also included Lester Lapuz, Junior Pamaran, Michael Moran, and Blair Nicholls. The quartet won a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle relay.

Nichols got his second bronze medal with a third place finish in the boys’ 18-and-under 100m backstroke (1:19.95), while Lapuz also placed third in the boys’ 13-14 400m freestyle (5:24.41).

Meanwhile, SSC would like to thank Tan Holdings Co. for allowing the team to stay at Fiesta Resort & Spa Guam.