Saipan Tribune

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Thursday, February 21, 2013

PBTs flood in NMISF swim meet

CNMI swimmers continued to show significant improvement this season, as 28 more personal best times were recorded in the first half alone of the Northern Mariana Islands Swimming Federation's third meet held at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool last Saturday.

The 28 PBTs were made in the first five events scheduled for the weekend meet, which featured swimmers from both the Saipan Swim Club and the Tsunami Saipan Swimmer Center.

Tsunami bets and siblings Daime and Kyona Rivera started the competition, joining the 100m breaststroke. Kyona completed the race in 1:55.87, chopping more than eight seconds from her previous PBT or seed time of 2:03.88. The older Rivera submitted 1:41.99.

In the boys 100m breaststroke, SSC's Taiga Sato recorded the fastest time at 1:50.64, which is his new PBT, about 12 seconds better than his previous mark of 2:02.65. Sato's teammates Akira Kadokura and R.J. Pierce also set new PBT with their 1:57.07 and 2:12.53, respectively, while Christian Villacrusis had his first official 100m breaststroke race and posted a field second best time of 1:53.21.

For the second event of the day-the 100m backstroke, Sato logged the only PBT in the race, timing in at 1:41.53, less than two second behind top finisher and SSC's Lennosuke Susuki (1:39.89).

In the girls 100m freestyle, SSC's Victoria Chentsova and Contasu Kaga recorded the Top 2 bets times and also earned PBTs. Chentsova completed the race in 1:05.98, surpassing her 1:06.95, while Kaga dropped more than seven seconds from her previous PBT (1:43.25) after posting 1:35.43. Conatsu's younger sister Coume also got a PBT, timing in at 1:51.37 (from 1:55.43), while Mylan Goodwin had the biggest drop in the field and the entire tournament (about 28 seconds) after clocking in at 2:05.73 and eclipsing her 2:33.18.

In the boys 100m freestyle, the Top 4 finishers gained PBT with Suzuki leading the way with his 1:24.33, followed by David Boyer (1:26.38), Rinto Takahashi (1:28.56), and Taiyo Akimaru (1:43.99). Miku Torres also joined the nine-swimmer field and was the fifth one to set a new PBT at 1:54.75, more than two seconds faster than his old mark (1:57.15).

For the fourth event of the day-the 50m butterfly-four of the six swimmers entered in the race earned PBT. Kento Akimaru of SSC had the fastest time at 33.79 seconds, which shattered his old PBT of 33.84. David Boyer of SSC and Mark Maestro of Tsunami also had PBTs with their 47.02 seconds and 49.65 seconds, respectively, while lone female competitor Jin Ju Thomson of SSC logged 55.22 seconds to break her previous mark (56.69 seconds).

There were also four PBTs made in the girls 100m backstroke. Tsunami's Karen Irinaka got the first one and was also the fastest in the field with her 51.79 seconds, more than five seconds better than her old record (57.14). Sister Coume and Conatsu also set PBTs with their 55.43 seconds and 55.96 seconds, respectively, while Goodwin completed the Top 4 with her PBT of 1:07.66.

In the boys 100m backstroke, which drew 18 participants, Suzuki recorded the best time of 46.98 seconds, surpassing his previous mark of 47.10 seconds. Also setting PBTs were Sato (47.80 seconds), Jinnosuke Suzuki (54.65), Xu Hans (57.65 seconds), Sam Ryu (1:05.73), and Richard Villagomez (1:06.33).

Meanwhile, four other events were scheduled in last weekend's competition and 20-plus more PBTs and one CNMI age group mark was recorded, but results of the second half of the meet will be reported in Saipan Tribune's Friday edition.