CNMI 5th overall in Asia-Pacific champs

The CNMI cross country team made up of 14 elite high school runners came in fifth place overall amongst nine other teams in the Asia Pacific Cross Country Championships held last Friday and Saturday in Guam.

In the boys 5K course, CNMI placed fourth, while the girls placed eighth.

First place in the 5K course was Guam High School with five points; second was St. Mary’s International School with six points; third was John F. Kennedy High School, Guam with nine points; and fourth was Yongsan International School, South Korea with 11.

In the relay portion when boys and girls raced together in 2.5K segments along Ypao Beach, they also placed fifth after their five teams of pairs came in sixth place, 27th place, 36th place, 48th place, and 52nd place. First place was GHS, IHSS/SMIS came in second, and YIS third.

With the CNMI’s fourth place finish in the boys 5K, the eighth place finish for the girls in the 5K, and the fifth place finish in the relay, they had a total score of 17 for fifth place overall.

The CNMI team consisted of Victor Nash Santos from Mount Carmel School; Pia Ngewakl from Kagman High School; Jireh Wang and Samuel Zhu from Agape Christian School; Deseha Mendiola and Summer Manahane from Saipan Southern High School; Serin Chung, Kaithlyn Chavez, and Landen Taflinger from Saipan International School; and Takeru Jim, Rex Pixley, Pony Tang, Michael Miller, and Jian Chun from Marianas High School. Coaches Dr. Ron Snyder and Angela Taflinger accompanied the team.

Synder said of the competition, it “was fierce and the courses difficult but the team performed admirably… The relay course was up a long incline, dropping swiftly back to sea level and then on the beach where the runners had to cycle between loose sand and even short distances into the ocean. After the first loop, the sand is loosened by the hundreds of runners and that means the boys’ second loop and both loops for the girls were even tougher!”

“Overall, the team’s performance was great,” said Snyder. “We had some amazing times and placed very well. I think we are positioned well to take home another trophy or two next year.”

He said the 2024 Asia Pacific Invitational Cross Country Championships will take place in the third weekend of October in Chiba, Japan, just outside of Tokyo. “That is where we took home the team trophy last year and I have a very good feeling about repeating that performance,” he said.

Snyder then thanked the athletes “for being so tough and flexible during the races and our free time, the organizers from Guam, especially Jay Antonio, the Cross Country team from JFK for making our students feel welcome during the course preview and to Melisha San Nicolas, Werlly Breakenridge, and the team at the Federal Programs Office for their extra work that they did to process the travel authorization. Without their help in securing a funding source, we would not have been able to bring students from six of the high schools in the CNMI.”