Mix of good fate and tough luck

Last week’s tales had a mix of good fate and tough luck.

Good fortune fell on Saipan International School’s boys varsity basketball team, Mt. Carmel School’s cagebelles, Fielders, Lion King, and Ketson “Jack” Kabiriel and doom for Jets and SIS cagebelles.

SIS’ boys varsity team took the championship in the 2009 Coalition of Private Schools on Saipan Basketball League after stunning the favored GCA Eagles in the finals, 41-31.

The SIS Lady Geckos were not as lucky as their male counterparts after bowing to MCS Lady Knights in the title game, 32-36. Mt. Carmel’s victory ended the Lady Geckos’ three-year reign in the league.

The Jets were also looking to extend their supremacy in the Senior division of the Saipan Little League Baseball, but failed to advance to this season’s finals on technicality.

The Jets lost their semis game via forfeiture against the Kagman Lion King, who protested the incomplete uniform of Jets pitcher Toby Fleming.

The sides of Fleming’s pants lacked stripes, violating the league’s ground rules on uniforms. The Jets appealed the protest and the forfeited game, but the SLLB board stood by its earlier decision, granting the Lion King the win.

The Jets were ahead, 11-0, in the third inning when Lion King protested the game and won. The Lion King moved into the finals against the Fielders with the latter cruising to an easy title win Saturday.

Kabiriel’s victory in the 2009 Half Marathon Championship was uncontested, as he finished the 21-kilometer race around three minutes ahead of his closest pursuer.

The 34-year-old mainstay of the Commonwealth’s national athletics team timed in at one hour, 31 minutes, and 42 seconds, to beat 17 other participants.

Korean veteran runner Bae Ji Keum (1:34:26) finished second, while Coco Restaurant’s Ronald Villafria (1:37:16) checked in third. Other finishers in the rain-soaked 13.1-mile race were Quincy Johnson (1:45:45), Chang Whan Jang (1:48:58), Fred Camacho (1:52:27), Tamio Nishikido (1:52:28), John Douglas (1:56:42), Keone Chariton (2:09:23), Joshua Berger (2:10:52), Manny Sitchon (2:11:52), Yosh Gabaldon (2:14:57), Brad Ruszala (2:29:59), John Jenkins (2:42:50), and Bernard Samson (2:44:17).

After the half marathon, Northern Marianas Athletics also held the 2009 CNMI National Track and Field Championships at the Oleai Sports Complex with the annual meet drawing around 200 participants.

In other good news, Basketball Association of Northern Mariana Islands was able to secure support for the hosting of the 2009 FIBA Oceania Basketball Tournament next month from three companies.

Lending a helping hand to BANMI were McDonald’s, IT&E, and Joeten Enterprises.

FIBA Oceania Steve Smith was on Saipan last week when BANMI managed to gain assistance from three companies. But Smith said that BANMI and CNMI’s responsibilities as host of the Oceania caging does not end in having private companies’ support, as local organizers through the government’s help also need to focus on the renovation of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

The Ada Gym is one of the two venues for the Oceania tournament and must undergo a major facelift to meet FIBA standard.