Good start for SSC, Tsunami swimmers

Two swimmers are in a close race in the 50m breaststroke event in last Saturday’s NMISF Opening Meet held at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Saipan Swim Club and Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan members got off to a good start as they combined for 22 personal best times in the first four events held during the Northern Mariana Islands Swimming Federation Opening Meet last Saturday at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi.

Ten PBTs were recorded in the 200m freestyle event, while seven were made in the 100m butterfly—the first of a series of races NMISF scheduled to kick off the 2016-2017 season. In the two other events out of the first four, four PBTs were registered in the 100m backstroke and one in the 200m breaststroke.

Christian Villacrusis of SSC logged the lone PBT in the 200m breaststroke after breaking the three-minute barrier with his 2:58.53, about four seconds better than his old mark (3:02.88).

The 16-year-old Villacrusis also posted one of the 10 PBTs in the 200m freestyle event. His 2:16.56 surpassed the 2:20.15 he made in the previous season. The Mt. Carmel School student’s time in last weekend’s meet was also the fastest among the 17 swimmers who did the 200m freestyle.

Another SSC bet—Salofi Welch—had the second best time in the 200m freestyle after tallying 2:18.56, which his new PBT. Welch entered last Saturday’s tournament with a seed time of 2:25.73.

Other PBT getters in the 200m freestyle were SSC’s Jinie Thompson (3:01.49), Jasmin Frink (3:25.58), Jinnosuke Suzuki (2:24.58), and Mark Jainier Chavez (3:32.56) and Tsunami Saipan’s Kana Suzuki (3:07.75), Sophia Gauran (2:31.88), Isaiah Aleksenko (2:26.83), and Sean Gil (2:59.37).

In the 100m backstroke, Tsunami Saipan’s Juhn Tenorio was the fastest among the four swimmers who did the two-lap race after submitting 1:17.92. Tenorio also earned a PBT, surpassing his old mark of 1:20.57.

Two more Tsunami Saipan members got PBTs in the 100m backstroke with Aika Watanabe recording 1:23.43 (from 1:24.79) and Hans Xu registering 1:25.42 (from 1:27.13). Taiga Sato of SSC was the fourth swimmer to mark a PBT in the event after checking in at 1:20.84 (from 1:24.11).

In the 100m butterfly race, four SSC bets achieved PBTs. Kento Akumaru was one of them and had the fastest PBT with his 1:04.23 (from 1:05.01). David Boyer tallied 1:09.76 to break his old PBT (1:12.08), while Welch and Andrei Kaith Lynn Chavez had the same feats after recording 1:11.31 (from 1:19.66) and 1:53.52 (from 1:58.59), respectively.

As for Tsunami Saipan’s side, Ashley Dangol’s 1:18.53 eclipsed her previous PBT of 1:19.61. Her brother, Aasish also got a PBT (1:32.00) along with Nelson Batallones (1:14.94).

There were 17 events scheduled in NMISF’s season-opening meet and results of the other events will be reported in Saipan Tribune this week.

Over 50 swimmers joined the first competition of the season and NMISF would like to thank its board members and the parents/family members of swimmers from both clubs for making the event possible.