3 gold for SIS, 2 for ACS, 1 for MHS

Private and public school runners put on their best running shoes and braved the early cross country course for an exciting and competitive PSS/NMA All Schools Cross Country 2023-2024 championships at the Saipan Vegas Country Club on a sports-filled Saturday.

At the end of the morning, team scores weren’t tallied completely as PSS had a host of other sports going on that day. The championship results came out yesterday with cross country teams from Saipan International School, Agape Christian School, and Marianas High School coming out on top of their respective divisions.

Cross country is like golf in that the lowest score wins—with the Geckos perfecting the middle school girls category with 10 points and dethroning ACS. The Geckos’ two other gold medals were from a sweep of the elementary school divisions as they continue to hold supremacy in that division. The Gecko boys garnered 33 points while the Gecko girls grabbed 14.

The Torchbearers won gold in the middle school boys division just as last year with 18 points, while the high school girls retained their first-place finish with 16 points.

MHS dethroned ACS in the boys high school division with a score of 18 for the gold medal. Silver went to ACS with 25 points; and bronze was Tinian High School with 68 points.

Silver medal in the MS girls was ACS with 45 points; and bronze was Hopwood Middle School with 57 points.

In the ES boys division, silver went to Tinian Elementary School with 37 points; and bronze was San Vicente Elementary School with 44. Silver in the ES girls was Brilliant Star School with 43; and bronze was Mount Carmel School with 65.

SIS earned a silver medal in the MS boys division with 58 points; and bronze went to HMS with 61. SIS earned a second silver medal as they placed second in the HS girls division with 22 points; bronze went to MHS with 43.

Dr. Ron Snyder, SIS coach and headmaster as well as organizer of the event, said that as a coach, he is “incredibly impressed with the perfect score our MS Girls team got. It is very rare for a team to be able to achieve a perfect score. Out of the Top 8 finishers, SIS had one, two, three, four, five, and eight. What is even more exciting for me is that all but only one of these runners is an eighth grader. This is a team to watch in 2024 and beyond.”

When asked about the performance of the teams this year, he said, “ACS continues to have a strong cross country team. This has not changed. What has changed is that several other teams are also developing some real strengths.”

He added, “At SIS, we have become known as a distance running school and our girls have really shined. From Isabel [Dickinson], to Tania [Tan], to Anika [Snyder], to Tiana [Cabrera], to Kaithlyn [Chavez], we have held the top spot for eight years and the current MS champion is coming up to join Kaithlyn next year. MHS has the benefit of having a lot of strong athletes from other schools join them. But, beyond that, Pony Tang has been incredible in implementing an amazing running club that has drawn in numerous athletes. He deserves a big round of applause for a role that transcends student athletes and I am sure he will be missed by his team when he graduates.”

Gabi Race, coach for MHS’ cross country team, said this about her team, “We had a talented group of runners this year and they did very well in the finals. Most of our top runners are very disciplined and trained on their own in addition to the MHS practices to improve their times and performance for the finals.”

She added, “We were also thankful to the organizers for allowing us a JV team where less experienced runners can develop so that we’ll continue to grow the cross country program at MHS.”

Pastor Kok H. Pang of ACS said that the school had another great cross country season. “This year we claimed two golds (in HS Girls and MS Boys) and two silvers in HS Boys and MS Girls). I am particularly proud to have individual gold and silver medals for MS boys in Raffy Cai and Daniel Yang. Mary Zhu got us another individual bronze in HS Girls,” he said.

He added, “ACS trains our new students to go from walkers to become runners of all ages. We are a small private school with very few students to choose from. We do not have good runners from other schools being offered scholarships to run for us.”

As for the competition, he said “The standard of HS Boys is very high this year. There are new and younger boys who are running very well this year. Congratulations to MHS for winning the HS boys championship this year. This bodes well for the CNMI cross country and athletics as a whole in the coming years.”

“On behalf of ACS, I would like to thank the PSS athletics program, [Northern Marianas Athletics], Run Saipan and [Kagman High School], for their dedication in organizing the qualifying rounds and the championship. I would also want to thank Saipan Vegas Resort for their gracious service to allow their golf course to be used for practice and the championship all these years,” said Pang.

As for his thoughts as an organizer, Snyder said that in over his eight years involved in cross country in the CNMI, he’s constantly amazed with the growth of the sport and quality of the athletes. He said now, the courses have the look and feel of stateside courses and have developed their network to include races in the north, south, east, and west side of Saipan.

“Five years ago, we only had a handful of athletes who could break 20 minutes in a 5K. We now have a pack of runners that can do this. Our elementary and middle school programs are also growing incredibly,” he added.

Results of the individual awards will be posted in the next issues of Saipan Tribune.