SSC to send six swimmers to Guam

  The Saipan Swim Club will be sending six of the club’s best swimmers to the 2012 Guam Swimming Championships set for this weekend, May 25 and 26, at the Hagatna 50m pool.

Making up the team are Victoria Chentsova, Kento Akimaru, Taiga Sato, Lennosuke Suzuki, Rinto Takahashi, and Naoki Kasai. SSC assistant coach Mieko Carey will accompany the six swimmers in the long course meet.

Fourteen-year-old Chenstsova will see action in the 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke, and 50m backstroke. Chenstsova is a 9th grader at Saipan International School.

Akimaru, an 11-year-old 6th grader at Saipan Community School, will swim in the 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 50m breaststroke.

Nine-year-old Sato, for his part, will compete in the 100m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 200m individual medley, and 50m freestyle. Sato is a 4th grade student at Garapan Elementary School.

Suzuki, a 9-year-old 3rd grade student at Saipan Community School, will swim in the 100m breaststroke, 50m backstroke, 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly, and 200m IM.

A 3rd grader at Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School, 9-years-old Takahashi will take part in the 100m backstroke, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, and 200m IM.

The 50m breaststroke and 100m breaststroke, meanwhile, await 9-year-old Whispering Palms School 3rd grader Kasai.

Aside from the individual events, the four 9-year-old boys-Suzuki, Takahashi, Suzuki, and Kasai-will also swim the 200m medley and freestyle relays.

Chentsova, for her part, will swim the freestyle in the 13-14 year old girls Medley Relay for the CNMI team consisting of both SSC and Tsunami Saipan swimmers.

This will be Takahashi and Kasai’s first time to participate in the Guam annual meet. Last year at this meet, Akimaru won each of his events, giving him the highest possible number of points (140) which won him the 9 to 10 year old boys age group high point award.

This year he enters a new age category-11 to 12 years. Chentsova, for her part, finished fourth overall in the girls 13 to 14 age category last year and aims to improve that position this year.

Suzuki placed third in the U8 age group after collecting 102 points and will also enter a new age category for this upcoming race.

Following the meet on May 27, five of the SSC swimmers and Carey will compete in the 22nd Annual International Invitational Cocos Crossing, a grueling 2.5-mile open ocean swim from Cocos Island to Merizo Pier.