5 athletes, 1 team complete NMSA’s monthly awardees

The CNMI’s Sunjoon Tenorio, left, seen here surrounded by Guam All-Stars defenders during the Marianas Cup 2017 held at the Guam Football Association National Training Center, was named NMSA/TSL Foundation Male Student Athlete of the Month for November. (Contributed Photo)

Five athletes and one squad made it to the final list of Northern Marianas Sports Association’s monthly awardees for 2017.

The association, during its meeting last night, selected the top performers for November and December to close out the roster of its awardees who will be recognized at the NMSA Annual Sports Banquet on Feb. 22 at the Hibiscus Hall of the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan.

The November winners were led by soccer players Sunjoon Tenorio and Paulyn Joyce, who were named NMSA/TSL Foundation Student Athletes of the Month. Tenorio took the Golden Boot award in the boys U17 division of the 2017 NMIFA Youth Fall League after scoring the most goals (19) last season. The Marianas High School student also helped MP United win the division crown in the same league and the FA Challenge Cup and played for the Teen Ayuyus that finished runner-up in the M-League.

Joyce of Hopwood Middle School was also a Golden Boot awardee in the girls U15 division of the NMIFA youth league and had an important role in Kanoa Resort’s title victory against five-time champion Shirley’s FC.

Joining Joyce and Tenorio on the November honor roll was the Napu Outrigger Canoe Club’s girls team, which topped a series of local races.

For the December awardees, swimmer Nanaka Watanabe, tennis player Robbie Schorr, and weightlifter Angel San Nicolas made the elite selection

San Nicolas was named Male Athlete of the Month after handing Team CNMI its lone medal in the 2017 Pacific Mini Games in Vanuatu. He won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk (94-kilogram division) event of the weightlifting division and was also the flag bearer for the lean Commonwealth delegation to last month’s quadrennial meet.

Watanabe and Schorr took the NMSA/TSL Foundation Student Athletes of the Month for their notable showings in local competitions.

Schorr of Saipan International School had a three-peat in the 9th Annual TanHoldings Tennis Classic after clinching the boys U18 singles and the men’s open singles and doubles championships in Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association’s first tournament for the 2017-2018 season.

Watanabe, on the other hand, raced in the Tsunami Saipan Open and the Tanapag Middle School students broke a 16-year-old mark in the 11 to 12 age group. She timed in at 20:54.97 in the lung-busting 1,500m freestyle race, surpassing the record of Saipan Swim Club’s Myana Welch, who clocked in at 21:10.55 on April 28, 2002.