Saipan swimmers break records at ABC meet

Five swimmers continued their run on records while many others swam their personal best times against Guam’s best. Forty swimmers from the Saipan Swim Club competed in the ABC Invitational Swim Meet held on Guam last weekend.

Amanda Johnson (8) continued her run on records by breaking two more and setting another. She broke Tammy Winkfield’s 200 Individual Medley taking it down to 3:50.92, and Kirsten Gallacher’s 50 m Butterfly to 50.91, dropping 6-7 seconds in each event. She also set a record for the 400 m Freestyle at 6:51.14.
Myana Welch broke Tammy’s 50 m Breastroke record for the 10 and under age group at the International Meet, but lowered it again at the meet, clocking 44.17 seconds. Myana also broke Tracy Feger’s 50 m Butterfly and Tammy’s 200 Individual Medley records, 41.92 and 3:l5.23, respectively.

First year swimmer David Perry (8) broke one of the older records set in 1988 by Jun Yamagishi with a time of 51:84. for the 5O m Breastroke in his age division. In the same age group Rezne Wong (8) got into the record books by dropping almost 20 seconds off Sho Saso’s 400 m Free swimming it in 6:55.59.

Xenavee Pangelinan continued breaking four Age Group records in the l00 m Freestyle (1:02.97), 100 m Butterfly (1:06.98), the 200 m Butterfly (2:26.55), and the 400 Individual Medley (5:14.93). The latter record being set during the Guam South Pacific Games.

This ABC Invitational was the first off-island competition for several new swimmers who took swimming lessons this past summer and were good enough to join the Saipan Swim Club in the fall. All of them returned with ribbons.

First year swimmers were Arthur Welch, David and Andrew Perry, Nicole Calvo, Michelle Cruz, Minerva Cabrera, Alex and Andi Negrete, John Cabildo, Brenda Atalig, Lily Jean Asanuma, Katie Nicholls, Nick Shoemake and Daniel Kim.