Santos, Taflinger golden in x-country

The fastest qualified cross-country runners took to the last course of the PSS/NMA All Schools Cross-Country 2024-2025—the championships at the Saipan Vegas Country Club last Saturday morning—with Saipan International School’s Victor Nash Santos and Addalee Taflinger leading the way.

Cross-country star Santos—who swept all four qualifiers—wrapped up the season in the 3-mile, 2-lap course with a golden run of 18:23. Agape Christian School’s Jireh Wang was silver at 18:43, while Marianas High School’s Takeru Jim settled for bronze at 18:45.

The high school junior actually took a break from running but came back stronger and more motivated this season. In the championships, he was behind a runner after the first lap, but picked up the pace and left everyone in his dust in the second and final lap.

On his championship win and sweep of the whole season, he said, “I feel good. I want to thank Jesus Christ because he helped me. I woke up every day to train and grind, but I wouldn’t have done this without him.”

With his exceptional sweep of all the cross-country qualifiers, he said he felt a lot of pressure to win the championships. “I felt a lot of pressure on me after winning all the qualifiers, but in the end, it helped me because I didn’t want to lose. I’ll only get better from here,” said Santos.

After he made his way back to running again after a disappointing performance in the all-schools track and field event last school year that demotivated him, he said, “I found my way again and I’m just glad to be here.”

Last cross-country season, he finished third in the championships and was happy with that. This season, he pushed for gold because he said he wouldn’t have been happy and satisfied with anything less.

As for the girls division, there’s a new champion this year.

Up-and-coming runner and high school freshman Taflinger, who bagged three out of four qualifiers, finished her golden run at 23:29. ACS’ Sablina Shen was silver at 23:53, while Mary Zhu was bronze at 25:02.

The 14-year-old was the fastest girl this year as last year’s champion, schoolmate Andrei Kaithlyn Chavez, did not compete after the second qualifier due to an injury. With that, Taflinger said she wished Chavez was there because it was her last year who pushed me to do better.”

As for the course, Taflinger said, “It was good. It was really slippery and there were small hills, but my team and I had been training on hills and different terrains.”

Results of the middle school and elementary school divisions will be posted in the next issues of Saipan Tribune.