MHS 1, SIS undefeated in HS badminton

A Marianas High School player gets ready to receive a serve from a Tinian High School player during their game in the TakeCare Interscholastic Badminton League last Feb. 19 at the TSL Sports Complex. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Marianas High School 1 and Saipan International School won their opening week matches in the TakeCare Interscholastic Badminton League last Feb. 19 at the TSL Sports Complex.

MHS 1 swept its first three games for a 40-5 record and the early lead in the six-team league. SIS defeated two teams for a 24-6 record. Saipan Southern High School (25-35), MHS 2 (9-21), and Tinian Junior Senior High School (7-23) were the other teams that debuted in the Northern Marianas Badminton Association and CNMI Public School System-organized competition, while Kagman High School is expected to join the field this weekend.

MHS 1 swept Tinian, 15-0, and also dominated MHS 2, 13-2, and Saipan Southern, 12-3, for a strong start in the high school division.

Seiyul Hong and Paulo Quidato won their singles matches over Tinian’s Sophia Su, 21-15, 21-10, and Morshedur Anan, 21-4, 21-9, to lead the Dolphins 1’s lopsided victory. In the men’s doubles, Ian Lubao and Joe Antonio also swept Tinian’s Saim Ali and Joseph Santos, 21-14, 21-8, while MHS notched its fourth sweep when Angielesya Punzalan and Angel Reyes topped Isa Long and Clarize Rodriguez in the girls doubles, 21-13, 21-17. Pony Tang and Arisa Custodio completed MHS 1’s domination of Tinian after beating Troy Cabarles, Denise Miguel, 21-6, 21-10.

Against their fellow Dolphins, MHS 1 also took the short route to victory in the girls and boys doubles as Lubao and Antonio prevailed over MHS 2’s Kyle Salcedo and Jerome Manzon, 21-8, 21-10, and Custodio and Hong defeated Shuxuan Zhang and Angie Feng, 21-16, 21-9. In the mixed doubles, Quidato and Hong outclassed Salcedo and Feng, 21-9, 21-13, while Tang and Abigael Robles needed three games in the singles play to slip past Erwin Aguirre 13-21, 21-20, 21-17, and 21-20, 15-21, 21-12, respectively.

Versus Saipan Southern, Quidato and Hong delivered anew for MHS 1 in singles play, while the doubles victories came from Antonio and Lubao (boys), Punzalan and Tang (mixed), and Reyes and Custodio.

Meanwhile, SIS triumphed over Saipan Southern and Tinian in similar scores, 12-3.

Lina Tsukagoshi swept Tinian’s Isa Long in the girls singles, 21-2, 21-10, while Matthew Berline also took only two games to beat Ali in the boys singles, 21-6, 21-7. Berline also prevailed in the boys doubles with Andy Kim as they topped Ali and Santos, 21-13, 21-7, while Kim partnered with Tsukagoshi in the mixed doubles to win over Saim and Gloria Santos, 21-7, 21-12. With the victory secured, SIS forfeited the girls doubles match.

The Geckos also took the first four games—boys and girls singles and boys and mixed doubles— in its duel against Saipan Southern to seal the victory before giving the girls doubles win to the Manta Rays. SIS used the same roster to earn the easy win over Saipan Southern.

In other results, SSHS defeated Tinian, 11-4, and MHS 2, 8-7.