5 named December’s best

Diana Camacho, Manacop’s fellow pinbuster, was the top female athlete, while soccer’s Rintaro Miyawaki and tennis’ Tania Tan earned the Tan Siu Lin Foundation/NMSA Male and Female Student Athletes of the Month awards.

Manacop, despite finishing third after the 9-game roll-off, overcame all the odds stacked against him to rule the 2014 Saipan Bowling Association-Budweiser King of the Lanes. He defeated No. 2 Raymond Angeles, 182-163, in the stepladder semifinals to spoil an all-Raymond finale after defending champion Raymond Zapanta clinched the top seeding and the twice-to-beat edge in the finals. Zapanta won the 2013 finals, denying Manacop a three-peat after the latter topped the King of the Lanes in 2011 and 2012.

The police officer, the only CNMI bowler to qualify in the Masters event of the 28th Asian Intercity Bowling Championships held last November in San Juan City, Philippines, was never threatened by Zapanta’s twice-to-beat edge. Manacop beat Zapanta, who only needed one game to complete his back-to-back title bid, but faltered, twice—210-132 and 207-194 for a 417-326 final tally.

Peter Camacho, meanwhile, was instrumental in helping NMSA squeeze out a 79-75 overtime win over the Feds in the 2014 IT&E-DYS Inter-government Basketball League finals last month.

Camacho scored 4 of NMSA’s last 9 points in the final period, including a pair of free throws that knotted the count at 68 and forced the 5-minute extension.

The Feds still had the chance to win in regulation, but Camacho stole the ball away from Hae Joon Park.

Diana Camacho, on the other hand, dominated the SBA-Budweiser Queen of the Lanes, ending up as the top seed and needed only one game in beating Yho Villavicencio in the finale, (158-137) to clinch her fourth crown and first since 2012. She also topped seven of the 12 monthly roll-offs (January, April, June and July, September, November, and December).

Saipan International School’s Miyawawaki tallied 14 goals in seven of their team’s nine games to win the 2014 NMIFA Boys U12 Interscholastic Football League’s Golden Boot award. He had a hat trick twice in the preliminaries and scored both goals in the Geckos’ 2-1 win over William S. Reyes in the finals.

Tan, who is also from SIS, ruled the girls U14 division of the 2014 Tan Holdings Tennis Classic, winning the singles crown and then teaming up with Julia Ishikawa in claiming the doubles tiara. She also topped the women’s 4.0 singles, making her the top U14 netter on the Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association’s junior rankings. (Jon Perez)