Agape Youth Team 1 tops youth division

Agape Youth Team 1 topped the under 18 division of the new Northern Marianas Athletics’ 42nd Christmas Island Relay 13.1-mile course from Hyatt Regency Saipan to Marpi and back last Saturday.

Agape student-athletes started the Christmas weekend off on the right foot and swept the competition in the youth and open division. In the youth division, they outran three other teams with a time of 1:21.41.

The team was captained by Daniel Song with team members John Chen, Jeshurun He, Daniel Yang, and Rayviel Escarlan.

A close second place went to Team Santa Youth 2023 captained by Andrei Kaithlyn Chavez with a time of 1:22.54. They were initially in the lead but got lost toward the end of the course which allowed Agape Youth Team 1 to overtake them for first place.

Third place was Agape Youth Team 2 captained by Stephen Chen with a time of 1:27.52.

Agape Youth Team 1 captain Song said that the course was “pretty good. You run to the turning point and back, so you get familiar with where you’re running. It’s easier to know which runner should be running which leg.”

On how they felt with the first-place win even with Team Santa Youth in the lead, they said, “we believe it’s a miracle from God. the other team, they’re like 16-year-olds, and we’re younger than them. They actually took the lead, but when they ran back, they lost the trail, and we somehow came in first.”

The team then thanked their school’s principal and their driver, and above all, God.

Run Saipan president Edward Dela Cruz Jr. said of the new course, “the beautiful thing about this course is that it’s out-and-back, and everyone got to high-five and cheer everyone down and back.”

In this year’s event, Dela Cruz said they started the non-competitive family teams first with a 15-minute head start before the competitive teams.

He added that the teams kind of met in the turnaround point at Kensington Hotel Saipan, “so it was kind of like a Christmas mosh party outside between all the teams.” Dela Cruz then said that the new course will most likely be the course again next year if Saipan’s roadway construction is not completed.

This year, there were 21 teams in the race for the open, youth, and non-competitive divisions.

The sponsors of this year’s race were Coca-Cola Beverage Co. (Micronesia), Inc., TSL Foundation, Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan, McDonald’s of Guam & Saipan, IT&E, Northern Marianas Sports Association, Run Saipan, Department of Public Safety, and Marianas High School National Honor Society.