Frink, Retardo, Shin top Tetrathlon

Catalina Frink, Gwen Retardo, and Lucy Shin finished in first place in their respective age groups in last Saturday’s Tetrathlon hosted by the Northern Mariana Islands Swimming Federation and participated in by swimmers from Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan and Saipan Swim Club at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan.

A Tetrathlon is an event where swimmers compete in four strokes—butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. First place gets 1 point, second 2 points, third 3 points, and so on. Like golf, the swimmer with the lowest score wins the age group. In this particular race the distance was 50m.

Frink won the 11-12 division with four points after topping all four strokes for a 4 total points. Mia Camacho edged Sera Guerrero for place second after both swimmers finished with 11 points. The former finished second in the butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle while coming in fifth in the breaststroke. The latter, meanwhile, came in third in the butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle and second in the breaststroke.

For Retardo, much like Frink she swept all four events in the 9-10 division for 4 total points. Yoonmin Cho came in second with 9 points after finishing runner-up in the everything but the backstroke where he came in third. Leo Li was third with 15 points following third place finishes in the butterfly and breaststroke and No. 4 and No. 5 in the backstroke and freestyle, respectively.

In the 8-and-under age group, Shin topped two races—butterfly and breaststroke—while coming in second in the backstroke and freestyle for 6 points. Olivia Walsh was second with 7 points after first place finishes in the backstroke and freestyle and third in butterfly and second in breaststroke. Lukasz Szefler came third with 11 points following a second-place finish in the butterfly and third place finishes in the backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.

On top of winning her age group, Frink was just glad that the Tetrathlon allowed her to meet new people and new friends.

“Before the race I was nervous and scared. I told myself just to calm down and focus on your own pace and especially to have fun. When I realized I gotten first I felt proud for myself because of my hard work. I knew I will and can have new opportunities in those future events If I keep pushing myself to work harder.”

Gwen Retardo, meanwhile, said she’s just happy to have achieved her goals in the Tetrathlon.

“When I got my medal, I was happy with my results. I liked talking to new people at SSC and met some of my old friends. All in all, I was really happy when I came there from the start to finish. After this I want to do this more. Thank you for my coach and teammates.”

Shin then attributed her win for being a member of Tsunami Saipan.

“Since I practice at Tsunami, I think I get the medal. I will practice harder and get more medals in the future. Thank you to my coach.”