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5 get NMASA April honors
Kanae Quinn, seen here with the pro winners in last month’s Tagaman Triathlon, took the NMASA Female Athlete of the Month (for April) award. (ROSELYN B. MONROYO)
Triathlon’s Kanae Quinn led the list and is joined by swimming’s Angel Marie Tan, tennis’ Luther Lizama, soccer’s Tanapon Unsa, and bowling’s Ronald Batac.
Quinn took the NMASA Female Athlete of the Month (for April) after completing back-to-back triathlon events in the CNMI. She first participated in XTERRA Saipan and was the first female finisher (fourth overall) in the XTERRA Sport course with a time of 2:29:56. The following week, Quinn joined the longer and tougher Tagaman Triathlon, placing fourth in the pro division with a personal best time of 3:08:13 in the Olympic-distance race. Before the two triathlon events on Saipan, Quinn also took part in XTERRA Guam and still had a respectable finish despite having problems with her shoes and an early crash.
Sharing the NMASA Athlete of the Month recognition with Quinn was Batac, who earned the award for the men’s division after ruling the Saipan Bowling Association-Budweiser April King of the Lanes Tournament.
Batac took the SBA April honors against the favored Robert Talavera, who won the first three monthly tournaments. Batac collected 833 pinfalls in a four-game series to beat Talavera, who had the next two best scores in the two-day tournament (815 and 808).
In the TSL Foundation/NMASA Student Athlete of the Month race, Unsa and Lizama tied for the boys plum after getting four votes apiece during the NMASA meeting last week. Unsa was nominated and selected for the April honors after helping MP United win the boys U18 championship in the NMIFA youth spring league. The MP United forward scored 20 goals in nine games and won the Golden Boot award in the division.
Lizama was also triumphant in the 2014 CNMI Junior Tennis Championships, sweeping his way to the boys U12 title. He marched into the finals after making short work of Robbie Schorr, 6-2, 6-4, and bagged the championship after a clinical 6-0, 6-1 victory versus Vincent Tudela.
In the TSL Foundation/NMASA Student Athlete of the Month contest, there is only one winner in Tan, who bested two other candidates. Tan earned NMASA’s nods for her strong showing in the swim legs of both XTERRA Saipan and Tagaman Triathlon. She was the second female and fifth overall finisher in the swim leg in Tagaman after submitting 11:34 and helped her team for a fifth place finish (overall) in the relay race. In XTERRA, Tan was the first female out of the water (33:22) and 10th overall, defeating the six women pro, and her squad was ranked first in the relay.
