Siblings shine for Tsunami Saipan

Ashley, right, and Aasish Dangol, race in the 50m butterfly event in last Saturday’s 2016 SSC Pentathlon Meet at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Tsunami Saipan’s Ashley and Aasish Dangol finished on top of their respective age groups in last Saturday’s 2016 SSC Pentathlon Meet held at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool.

Ashley ruled the girls 9 to 10 age group, as she won four of the five events lined up in the Saipan Swim Club-organized tournament. The 9-year-old swimmer got 9 points each from her four first place swims and 6 for her one third ranking for a total of 42 points. Ashley defeated teammates Nanaka Watanabe (37), Risa Sekiguchi (22), Kana Suzuki (21), and Ayumi Obligacion (20) and SSC’s Jinie Thompson (27) and Ayaka Sato (11).

The older Dangol’s first place finishes came from the 50m butterfly (35.51 seconds), 50m backstroke (39.04), 50m freestyle (33.54), and 200m individual medley (3:04.41), while she missed a sweep after rounding out at the third place in the 50m breaststroke (49.97 seconds) behind Nanaka (44.97) and Obligacion (49.58).

Despite failing to rule the 50m breaststroke, Ashley managed to earn a personal best time in the event, as her previous PBT read at 53.04 seconds. She also bagged PBTS in the 50m backstroke (from 39.52 seconds) and 200m IM (from 3:13.76) events.

Aasish, on the other hand, had 4-for-4 PBTs en route to winning the boys U8 division. He timed in at 45.63 seconds in the 50m butterfly to surpass his old PBT of 49.09 and beat three other swimmers in his field. In the 50m backstroke, the 7-year-old swimmer clocked in at 53.45 seconds—more than three second faster than his old PBT (56.94)—and he got the two other PBTs in the 50m breaststroke (from 58.27 seconds to 56.37) and 50m freestyle (from 43.04 to 42.50).

Aasish collected 36 points from his four first place finishes to beat SSC’s Dino Santo (27), Wataru Kadokura (21), and Robert DeCourteny (19) for the top honors in the boys U8 division.

Meanwhile, three other Tsunami Saipan swimmers also reigned supreme in their respective age groups.

Maria Batallones hauled 32 points to edge SSC’s Kaith Lynn Chavez(31) in the girls U8 age group. SSC’s Savita Sikkel (19) rounded out the field. Batallones prevailed in the last two events (50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle) to nip Chavez, who won in the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke. The Tsunami Saipan swimmer was runner-up in the events Chavez ruled, while the latter was ranked third in the 50m breaststroke, allowing the former to take a one-point win in the division.

In the girls 11 to 12 age group, Sophia Gauran downed fellow Tsunami Saipan bet Aika Watanabe, 43-37. Gauran and Watanabe split the first two events with the latter taking the 50m butterfly and the former getting the 50m backstroke. Gauran then swept the last three races (50m breaststroke, 50m freestyle, and 200m IM) to win the all-Tsunami Saipan duel.

In the boys 17 and over division, Takumi Sugie gained 42 points to down SSC’s Salofi Welch (34) and Caleb Wang (28). Sugie was the top finisher in the 200m IM, 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, and 50m butterfly and missed a perfect run in the pentathlon after coming in at third place in the 50m breastroke (1:26.84) behind Welch (1:25.47) and Wang (1:26.35).