Akimaru dominates

Saipan Swim Club’s Kento Akimaru does the last lap of the 100m butterfly event during last Friday’s competition in the 2017 SSC International Meet at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Saipan Swim Club’s Kento Akimaru was the runaway winner of the high-point award in the boys 15 to 16 competition in last week’s 2017 SSC International Meet held at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool.

The 16-year-old swimmer topped all the events he competed in to collect 90 points, more than 20 markers ahead of runner-up and fellow SSC member Christian Villacrusis (69) and Manhoben Swim Club’s Tanner Poppe (63).

Akimaru started his domination in his age group last Thursday when he defeated Palau’s Keemo Kanai in the exhausting 1,500m freestyle race. The Marianas High School student clocked in at 17:59.95, finishing the 30-lap race about four minutes faster than Kanai (21:59.77). Akimaru also set a personal best time as his previous record read at 18:51.48.

The SSC swimmer made it 10-for-10, as he also earned PBTs in his nine other races. Akimaru’s other PBTs were registered in 200m butterfly (2:30.39/from 2:39.80); 100m butterfly (1:03.21/1:03.99); 100m breaststroke (1:14.20/1:16.42); 50m butterfly (28.19 seconds/29.84 seconds); 400m freestyle (4:26.15/4:49.45); 200m freestyle (2:05.55/2:08.71); 200m individual medley (2:24.24/2:26.90); 50, freestyle (25.83 seconds/26.33 seconds); and 100m freestyle (56.86 seconds/57.31 seconds).

Meanwhile, six other swimmers joined the high-point race in the boys 15 to 16 age group with Manhoben’s Santiago Poppe coming in at fourth place with his 56 points and followed by SSC’s David Boyer (51), Kanai (43), Pohnpei Swim Club’s Kaleb Boylston (25), and Manhoben’s Miguel Jugo (24) and Gray Harvey (17).

In the girls 15 to 16 age group, Manhoben’s Mineri Gomez and Palau’s Roylin Akiwo were tied for first place after gaining 84 points each, while Tsunami Saipan’s Kathrine Illahi was the runner-up after scoring 21 markers.

In the 17-and-over division, Palau and Pohnei spit the top honors with Osisang Chilton winning the girls field and Kaleo Kihleng prevailing in the boys category.

Kaleo was way ahead of his opponents as he collected 72 points. Dolphin Club Saipan’s Ray Alvarez tallied 28 points to place second, while his teammate Jay Igisaiar rounded out the Top 3 after making 20 markers. The rest of the participants in the over 17 division were from Dolphin Club with Sonny Holandez finishing at fourth with his 17 points, Jerrod Calvo (12) at fifth, Peter Perez (9) at sixth, and Michael Hidalgo (8) at ninth.

In the girls division, Osisang won a close fight against Tsunami Saipan’s Angel De Jesus, 88-82. Dolphin Club’s Gammilie Eugenio was at distant third after posting 17 points, while her teammates Abby Perez (11), Yulia Aleksenko (8), and Andrea Carr (8) rounded out the field.

Dolphin Club, SSC, and Tsunami Saipan swimmers raced against Palau, Guam, and Pohnpei bets for three days (March 23 to 25) at the Marpi pool and results of the other age group contests will be reported in Saipan Tribune’s Thursday issue.