Back-to-back for Santos, Tan

Athletics’ Tania Tan and Tyler Santos earned back-to-back monthly awards after their outstanding performance in local races.

Santos and Tan were named NMSA/Tan Siu Lin Foundation Male and Female Student Athletes of the Month for October and November to lead a host of monthly awardees Northern Marianas Sports Association recognized last Thursday during its meeting. NMSA selected the awardees for October to December in last week’s meeting, as it failed to convene in the last two months of 2018 due to Super Typhoon Yutu.

The two runners were the first place finishers in their respective age groups in the 2018 Northern Marianas Athletics/Public School System All Schools Cross Country Championships held last October and also got the top honors in the U18 division of the 34th Annual Mt. Tapochao Turkey Trot Run that took place in November. Tan, of Saipan International School, won three of the four cross country races (she was off-island in the first event), while Santos, of Tinian High School, prevailed in the last two and came to Saipan just a few hours before the Turkey Trot.

Both Santos and Tan also suited up for Team Marianas that competed in the 2018 Asia Pacific Invitational Cross Country Championships with the latter making it to the Top 10 out of the more than 100 runners. She is the first CNMI runner to earn an All-Island Team honors in the annual event and helped the squad to a Top 3 finish in the team competition.

Meanwhile, completing NMSA’s monthly awardees were the CNMI U18 Girls Athletics Team (Team of the Month for October), Eleina Santos (Female Athlete of the Month for November), Chris Aninzo (Male Athlete of the Month for December), Nelson Batallones (Male Student Athlete of the Month for December), and Agape Christian School A (Team of the Month for December).

Agape A, which was made of Willian Chen, Kobe Yang, Peter Wang, Jonathan Xiong, and Arthur Liang, was the overall finisher in last month’s 37th Annual Christmas Island Relay, extending the school’s reign in the race. Aninzo is with the York St. John University in the United Kingdom and a member of its soccer program, while Santos was the women’s open winner in the Turkey Trot Run. Batallones swam in the 14th FINA World Championships in China and earned personal best times in the 50m and 100m butterfly races.

The CNMI U18 Girls Athletics Team, on the other hand, had a podium finish (out of 12 schools) in the Asia Pacific Invitational. The Tan-led squad, which also had SIS’ Stella McCallion, Anika Snyder, and Malika Miyawaki and Marianas High School’s Therize Millare and Jerlyn Castillo Guam as members, was the fastest Micronesian team andplaced ahead of Palau. Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.