SSC lines up 13 events for All Schools meet

A swimmer competes in the 100m freestyle race during a local meet last month at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool, which will be busy again this weekend with Saipan Swim Club hosting the All Schools meet. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Saipan Swim Club will hold the 21st All Schools Swimming Championships this Saturday with 13 events lined up at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool.

The club will kick off the competition with the 400m freestyle race for high school and junior high students. Other events scheduled are the 200m medley relay for elementary, junior high, and high school; 200m freestyle for junior high and high school; 50m and 100m backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle for all divisions; 200m individual medley for junior high and high school; and 200m freestyle relay for all divisions.

There will be separate divisions for boys and girls, while the elementary category will be divided into two age groups, 10-and-under, and 11-and-above. Each participant is allowed to swim in two individual events and one relay, while schools can field as many swimmers as they want to in individual and relay races. However, only the Top 2 swimmers (individual races) and top relay team per school will receive points, which will be totaled to determine the champions in the elementary, junior high, and high school.

In the elementary division, the team to beat this year will be Whispering Palms, which topped the category for the past nine years. Whispering Palms earned 172 points in last year’s competition to prevail against Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School and William S. Reyes Elementary School, which collected 155 and 112, respectively.

Other schools that joined last year’s races in the elementary division were Saipan Community School (87 points), San Vicente Elementary School (27), Saipan International School (23), Agape Christian School (22), Seventh Day Adventist (21), Grace Christian Academy (18), Mt. Carmel School (18), Koblerville (18), Brilliant Star (12), Eucon International (8), and San Antonio (1).

In the two other divisions, the defending champions are Hopwood and Grace Christian Academy. Hopwood foiled Whispering Palms’ bid for a second division crown last year when the former gathered 84 points against the latter’s 34. Saipan Community School completed the Top 3 after tallying 22 points. In the high school division, the Eagles, who were bannered then by Kensuke Kimura and Angel Marie Tan, registered 83 points to edge Saipan International School and Marianas High School, which scored 71 and 43, respectively.

Meanwhile, this weekend’s races will begin at 8am, while warm-ups will start at 7am.