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Rota waving at SIS 10th Graders
SIS 10th Graders, Freshmen ’24, and English Academy runners show their certificates of completion after reaching Saipan—one of the island stops in the Run The Marianas. (Contributed Photo)
The Run The Marianas is expected to see its first finisher later this week with Saipan International School 10th Graders reaching past the 400-mile mark of the virtual race.
SIS 10th Graders is ahead of the 460-mile run that has its finish line on Rota, as the team has logged 414 miles as of last Monday. Tiana Cabrera, the winner of the girls U18 division in the opening leg of the 2020-2021 Public School System/Northern Marianas Athletics All Schools Cross Country Series last weekend, leads SIS 10th Graders. Other members of the front-running squad are Francise Asedillo, LinXi Cai, Samuel Culp, Hazel Guerrero, Zihe Guo, Huiwon Jeong, Dong Yeon Kang, YeLyn Kim, Sofia Kordiukova, Ivan Li, Charles McDonald III, Yun Woo Nam, Jesus Sablan, Hyeon Bo Shim, Edward Villagomez, Li Tai Wang, Kexuan Yu, and Haotian Zhang.
SIS 10th Graders also received its certificate of completion (Saipan stop at the 376-mile mark) last Monday and was joined by two other teams—Freshmen ’24 and English Academy. The Freshmen ’24 and English Academy have three more stops—SIS (388-mile mark), Tinian (397), and Aguijan (410)—to catch up with SIS 10th Graders at the finish line. The Freshmen ’24 has 23 runners on its roster, while English Academy has listed nine members and both squads are entered in the school category of Run The Marianas.
In the non-school division, Mile High Club is the pacesetter. Jeffrey Bacani, Mary Deala, Jonathan Sugutan, Terence Leung, Edward Dela Cruz Jr., Anastasiia Dela Cruz, Jay Muna, Tricia Cortez, and Elena Gersonde have combined for 387 miles as of last Monday.
In the individual race, New York City Marathon finisher Rommel Buenaflor is ahead with his 136 miles, while Dela Cruz and Marilou Carlos are tied for second with similar 126 miles.
After nearly one month since its launch, Run The Marianas logged over 5,000 miles. The virtual run kicked off last Oct. 15 with runners starting the race from Farallon De Pajaros to reach Rota via 13 island chain stops—Maug Landing (42-mile mark), followed by Asuncion (67), Agrihan (130), Pagan (175), Alamagan (214), Guguan (234), Sarigan (276), Anatahan (300), Farallon De Midinilla (325), Saipan (376), SIS (388), Tinian (397), Aguijan (410). Participants have until Feb. 14 next year to complete the 460-mile journey and they can do it by running on any locations or even on a treadmill.
Certificates with description of the island chain they have reached are awarded to teams/individual runners after every completed stops. Each member of the squad will receive medals upon completion of the race on or before Feb. 14.
