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4 take last awards for 2013 season
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Posted on Jan 05 2014
Four athletes made up the last batch of Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association’s monthly awardees for 2013.
The group is composed of soccer’s Clayton Izuka and Guinevere Borja, who were named TSL Foundation/NMASA Male and Female Student Athletes of the Month (December) and cycling’s Russ Quinn and Kimiko McKagan, who were selected Male and Female Athletes of the Month.
It was only the second time for the entire 2013 season that NMASA had a complete roster of awardees. The first time it happened was in February when volleyball’s Tyce Mister and Chenny Lizama took and top honors in the adults category and joined student awardees Clay McCullough-Stearns, also of volleyball, and swimming’s Miku Tammy.
Last month’s student awardees were picked after their notable performance in the 2013-2014 NMIFA/PSS Interscholastic Football League. Izuka was the goalkeeper of Saipan International School in the IFL and he towed the Geckos to a final stint against eventual champion Whispering Palms. The SIS goalie went on to take the Golden Glove award in the league after giving up only five goals in the entire season.
Izuka was also the goalkeeper for the CNMI U12 National Team that shut out Guam, 4-0, in the 2013 Marianas Football Cup held at the Oleai Sports Complex Field. Besides blanking Guam, Izuka started the CNMI’s offense, too, when his long throw was mishandled by his counterpart and the ball rolled into the goal.
As for Borja, she scored the lone goal that gave Whispering Palms its first championship in the girls division of the IFL. Besides leading her team to the title victory, Borja also took the Golden Boot award.
In the adults division, Quinn and McKagan were selected after competing in the 7th Annual Hell of Marianas Century Cycle. McKagan finished third in the women’s pro division after completing the 100-kilometer around the island race in 4:09:11. Quinn made it to the finish line earlier than McKagan after logging 3:51:39, which was good enough for fifth place in the 46 to 55 age group and 26th overall out of the 140 finishers. Quinn joined the race and broke the four-hour barrier less than a year after undergoing hip replacement surgery.
