Skerei PBs highlight Hopwood dominance

Neldreyton Skerei showed that he too can excel in track and field as the Saipan Little League Baseball standout reset five of last year’s records in the recently concluded 12th Public School System/McDonald’s All-Schools Athletics Championship.

Skerei, a member of the runner-up Fielders in this year’s Junior League division, eclipsed the 2014 times in the boys Under-14 100m, 400m, 800m, and 1,500m runs, and the farthest distance in the shot put event.

Two of the records shattered by the Hopwood Junior High School bet were by former Hilitai J.J. Jones (boys U14 100m and 400m runs).

Neldreyton Skerei, left, of Hopwood Junior High School receives his awards from Northern Marianas Athletics secretary general Robin Sapong. (Jon Perez)

Skerei began his breakthrough performance by breaking Jones’ 2014 mark of 12.14 seconds in the century dash with a time of 12.02 then followed it up by clocking 1:01.56 to improve last year’s 400m run record of 1:02.94 also by Jones.

He did not stop from there and collected the gold medals in the 800m run with 2:32.41 to beat last year’s time of 2:35.93 and in the 1,500m middle distance at 5:42.57 against Saipan International School’s Rintaro Miyawaki’s 5:54.26.

Skerei capped his amazing feat with an 11.95m throw in shot put to improve Tinian’s Joshua Hofschneider’s record of 9.25m in last year’s event.

His five gold medals were part of the Hopwood boys combined 15-medal haul as the boys collected 8-3-4 gold-silver-bronze.

Noel Cabrera (12.41), Skerei’s teammate, and Agape Christian Academy’s David Cai (12.88) settled for the silver and bronze in the boys U14 100m run, while Tarrence Babauta (1:05.78) and Rico Reyes (1:11.89), also both from Hopwood, finished second and third in the 400m run.

Saipan Community School’s Ken Song (2:42.77) and Dandan Middle School’s Audie Ostonal (2:47.40) were the second and third place finishers in the 800m run, while Mathew Reyes of DMS (5:46.65) and ACS’ Jonathan Xiong (5:47.42) duplicated their feat in the 1500m run.

Eric Kiser of SIS had the second best throw in the shot put event with 9.01m, while Hofschneider settled for the bronze with 8.98m.

Cabrera was also a multiple gold medalist after ruling the 60m run (7.53 seconds), long jump where he broke B.J. Norita’s 4.27m with a leap of 5.33m, and javelin throw with 29.0m.

Rico Reyes (Hopwood, 7.96 seconds) and Tarrence Babauta (San Antonio Middle School, 8.12) placed second and third in the 60m run; while Hofschneider and Mico Ucherbelau also bested Norita’s record with leaps of 4.97m and 4.91m, respectively to settle for silver and bronze in the long jump event.

Omar Rony (silver, 23.08m) and Ucherbelau (bronze, 22.10m) completed Hopwood’s sweep in the boy’s U14 javelin throw.

Xiong bounced back by copping the 3,000m run gold with the fastest time of 12:33.26 to reset Haruya Eda’s 2014 record of 12:52.14. San Antonio Middle School’s Lawrence Fleming also broke Eda’s mark with 12:47.63 but settled for silver, while ACS’ David Cai finished third (13:04.62).

Hofscneider gave Tinian the discus throw gold medal with a throw of 23.88m, while Whispering Palms’ Cole Chambers (22.26m) and Kiser (21.50m) bagged the silver and bronze.

DMS’ Reyes topped the 200m run with a time of 27.02 seconds to beat SAMS’ Babauta (27.40) and Hopwood’s Cabrera (28.01).