Quitugua, Santos deliver

Saipan Southern High School’s Traven Quitugua, fifth left, leads the finalists in the boys U18’s 100m race during the 2019 Public School System/McDonald’s All Schools Track and Field Championships held over the weekend at the Oleai Sports Complex. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Saipan Southern High School’s Traven Quitugua and Tinian Junior Senior High School’s Tyler Santos lived up to high expectations after ruling their respective events in the 2019 Public School System/McDonald’s All Schools Track and Field Championships held over the weekend at the Oleai Sports Complex.

Quitugua proved once again that he’s the sprints king in the CNMI after ruling the 100m and 200m races, while not to be outdone was Santos, who swept the remaining running events in the boys U18 division.

The Manta Rays runner clocked in at 23.29 seconds in the 200m run to finish way ahead of the pack. The seven other finalists in the sprint event timed in at 25 seconds and up with Marianas High School’s Oldie Roligat in second place after recording 25.01 seconds and Saipan International School’s Robbie Schorr coming in at third following his 25.26 seconds.

In the 100m run, Quitugua’s 11.37 gave him his first gold medal in the competition. The silver medal went to Agape Christian School’s Kobe Yang (11.95 seconds), while Roligat settled for the bronze after registering 12.34 seconds.

In the four other running events, Santos recorded 53.75 seconds (400m), 2:16.41 (800m), 4:42.40 (1,500m), and 10:35.63 (3,000m) to earn the most gold medals in the division. He defeated Agape’s Jonathan Xiong (10:40.33) and Ray Qi (11:49.11) and six other runners in the 3,000m run.

Agape also made it to the podium in the 1,500m race with Xiong (4:43.96) and Peter Wang (5:08.28) joining Santos in the Top 3, while the former was the runner-up, too in the 800m run after checking in at 2:16.59. Wang (2:23.66) rounded out the Top 3 in the 800m run, while his teammate, Kobe Yang (55.86 seconds) was ranked third in the 400m run behind Santos and Quitugua (54.52 seconds).

Meanwhile, after missing the gold medal in a couple of running events, Xiong finally bagged one in the long jump. The Agape student posted 5.99 meters to lead their school’s 1-2-3 finish in the event, as Yang and Arthur Liang got the silver and bronze after logging 5.85m and 5.41m, respectively.

In other results, Francisco Kumuch handed Kagman High School a pair of gold medals after winning the high jump and discus throw. Kumuch recorded 30.80m in the discus throw to prevail against Tinian’s Manuel Quitugua (29.69m) and Leorich Epity (29.39m). In the high jump, Kumuch’s 1.65m edged the 1.63m of Saipan Southern’s Glen Matalog and Tinian’s J.C. Guinto.

The gold medals in the two other field events went to Tinian with Epity registering 10.29m to top the shot out contest and Devin Cing tallying 41.75m to rule the javelin throw. Kumuch slid to second place in the javelin with his 39.88m, while SIS’ Steven Goodwin completed the Top 3 with his 38.27m. In the shot put, Tinian had a 1-2 finish with Quitugua (10.26m) joining Epity and Marianas High School’s Neldreyton Skerei (10.08m) in the podium.

Besides the boys U18 participants, last weekend’s competition also featured student-athletes in the boys and girls U14 and girls U18 and results will be reported in Saipan Tribune’s Wednesday and Thursday editions.

Tinian Junior Senior High School’s Tyler Santos, right, is congratulated by a one of the volunteers at the 2019 Public School System/McDonald’s All Schools Track and Field Championships during the awards ceremony for the 800m run held last Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)