Saipan Tribune

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

New division for Meek & Mighty Swim

A new category has been added to the Saipan Swim Club's 8th Annual Meek & Mighty Ocean Swim that will be held this Saturday in the waters of the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio.

The host club is introducing the “Minnow” division, which is a short and shallow course for young swimmers and has a distance of about 200 meters. SSC coach Gary Guzman will be at the course during the swim, serving as a buoy at the turnaround point, while parents are allowed to swim with their children. Participants in the “Minnow” event and the three other categories may use fins, snorkel, buoy, or paddles, but will not qualify for prizes in the divisions.

This weekend's swim will be at the XTERRA Tagaman course with swimmers allowed to join the three regular distances-the 1K race (Meek), 3K (Tweener), and 5K (Mighty).

Entry fee is only $10 and it covers a one-day pass to PIC's water park. An adult must accompany swimmers at the facility.

Pre-registration for the ocean swim is encouraged and filled out forms can be turned over either at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool or to the office of SSC president Robert Torres in Chalan Kiya. Completed registration forms can also be faxed at 234-5749.

Meanwhile, SSC would like to thank PIC for playing host to this year's Meek & Mighty Swim anew.

Last year, around 40 swimmers joined the annual race with SSC's very won Kento Akimaru leading the finishers in the event. Twelve-year-old Akimaru completed the longest race with the field's fastest time of 1:00:38.88. He finished the five-lap race just about 20 seconds ahead of runner-up Victoria Chentsova (1:00:57.38). Jeff El-Hajj (1:02:03.67), Carol Lyn Pierce (1:11:42.01), and Brian Morris (1:15:45.49) rounded out the Mighty finishers.

In the Tweener race, Ed Ewing timed in at 36:39 to beat Rachel Zuercher (43:53), Taiga Sato and Dawn Hammermeister (43:56.67), Lennosuke Susuki (44:30), Suzy Kindel (49:06), Daniel Calvo (53:19), Joshua Berger (53:38), Manny Sitchon (53:43), Paul Plunkett (53:50), Eden Schwartz (55:51), and Jennifer Kogre (1:00:17).

In the Meek category, adult swimmer Nicky Nichols (14:21) topped SSC mainstays Rinto Takahashi (17:02) and siblings Michail and Michael Villagomez, who had a down-to-the-wire finish, posting 17:20 and 17:21. Eleven others completed last year's shortest race. The list include Akira Kodukora (17:31), Conatsu Kaga (17:58), Roxie Lamar (18:49), Jon Ulrich (19:06), John Douglas (19:07.63), Quynchi Nguyen (19:07.66), Coume Kaga (19:41.76), Karri Fisher (19:49), Paul Viator (20:00), Miku Torres (20:37), R.J. Pierce (20:42.71), and Mamiko Oshima-Berger (20:42.73).

For more information about this weekend's Meek & Mighty, send email to saipanswimclub@gmail.com. (Saipan Tribune)