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PBT rush in NMISF last meet
The last local swim meet of the season had a fitting ending as Saipan Swim Club and Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan members registered numerous personal best times in the 2014-2015 Northern Mariana Islands Swimming Federation Championships.
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- Saipan Swim Club swimmers and their coaches huddle at the conclusion of last Saturday’s 2014-2015 Northern Mariana Islands Swimming Federation Championships at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool. (Contributed Photo)
In five of the first seven events of last Saturday competition at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool, 30 PBTs were made. Tsunami Saipan’s Nanaka Watanabe led the PBT-getters as she finished the girls 9 to 10’s 100m breaststroke race first with her 1:39.36, which was better than her old PBT of 1:44.35. SSC’s Coume Kaga came in at second with her PBT of 1:47.70 (from 1:51.11), while Watanabe’s teammates Natsuki Nagata and Shaunalyn Babauta also posted PBTs—2:01:14 and 2:12.23, respectively.
Twelve other swimmers bagged PBTs in the same event, which also featured the debuts of four members of the two local clubs.
SSC’s Jin Ju Thompson and Conatsu Kaga raced in the girls 11 to 12 age group and both got PBTs after recording 1:144.01 and 1:44.97, respectively. Duplicating their fete were Kyona Rivera (1:35.59), Angel De Jesus (1:35:79), Isaiah Aleksenko (1:57.63), Wataru kadokura (2:10.25), Aasish Dangol (2:10.80), Juhn Tenorio (1:47.56), Kenta Tomie (1:58.42), Arman Rechucher (1:59.90), Lennosuke Suzuki (1:27.43), and Rinto Takahashi (1:37.18).
Rinto’s younger brother, Leo, also earned a PBT in the 100m backstroke along with four other swimmers. Leo submitted 1:46.83 in the boys 9 to 10 race to eclipse his previous PBT of 1:57.77 and beat Tsunami Saipan’s Rentaro Suzuki. Rentaro logged 1:58.08, chopping off more than 20 seconds from his old PBT (2:20.55).
Coume Kaga (1:44.66) Ayaka Sato (2:07.45), and David Boyer (1:31.90) of SSC tallied the three other PBTs in the 100m backstroke.
In the 100m butterfly, all two PBTs came from Tsunami Saipan, while the club also registered the lone PBT in the 200m butterfly. Nelson Batallones marked the only PBT in the 200m butterfly after timing in at 3:10.90 (from 3:11.71), while his teammates Rei Sekiguchi and Anthony Camacho-Deleon Guerrero had the same achievement in the 100m butterfly after clocking in at 1:34.67 and 1:24.77, respectively.
In the 400m freestyle, Tsunami Saipan had five swimmers getting PBTs, while SSC had one. Ashley Dangol led the list for Tsunami with her 5:59.53, more than a minute faster than her seed time of 7:04.69. Her teammates, Nanaka Watanabe (6:13.52), Hans Xu (6:04.10), Batallones (5:43.74), and Mark Maestro (5:11.33) and SSC’s Conatsu Kaga (5:54.83) rounded out the list.
Meanwhile, results of the remaining events in last weekend’s competition will be reported tomorrow.
Around 70 swimmers joined NMISF’s final tournament for the 2014-2015 season.
“All the swimmers from each team entered this meet. The children were excited and in good spirits. I noticed a lot of laughter and camaraderie during this last meet on island. For the first time ever we had more than enough volunteers. We shared our duties and the morning moved along quickly with no technical problems. The meet ended with a fun 200-meter freestyle relay. This event although competitive among the swimmers was not a regulated event,” NMISF official Carol-Lynn Calobong-Pierce said in an email to Saipan Tribune.
