Swimmers bag another four medals

KOROR, Palau—CNMI swimmers had another successful night at the Palau National Swimming Pool Tuesday night, while the female netters capped their respectable charge in team competition by placing fourth yesterday, as action continued in the 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games.

The swimmers upped their medal count to nine by adding another four medals to their name while accounting for all CNMI medals so far.

Day 1 gold medalist Nina Mosley swam another terrific race in the finals of the women’s 200m Freestyle, and took home her second silver medal of the Mini Games with a time of 2:12.6. Melissa Coleman also competed in the final and placed fifth with a time of 2:19.1.

Shortly after, fellow female standout Myana Welch bagged her first medal, taking home the bronze after clocking in at 2:53.3, trailing only Adeline Williams and Esther Meallet of powerhouse New Caledonia. Minerva Cabrera and Amanda Johnson also put up strong outings as they touched the end of the pool in 2:55.8 and 3:00.0.

The fantastic four of David Palacios, Juan Camacho, Michael Camacho, and Rezne Wong then hauled in the NMI’s third medal of the night, combining forces to add another bronze to their bag. The foursome completed the men’s 800m Freestyle Relay in 8:54.8, only following New Caledonia and Guam.

Mosley closed out the CNMI’s campaign by swimming a 4:46.2 in the women’s 400m Freestyle. Mosley dominated the race, leading the pack for all but one lap. She apparently miscounted her laps, and stopped at the end of the pool. Mosley eventually realized the mishap and turned back, continuing the race, however, she was not able to overcome the time lost and settled for silver.

Delphine Bui-Duyet of New Caledonia was on Mosley’s tail the whole time and took advantage of Mosley’s blooper to take gold in 4:45.3.

“The kids swam really well,” swim coach Michael Stewart said. “Nina had two perfect races…in the 200m Freestyle she had lifetime best time by six seconds and unfortunately got touched out for the gold. [She] dominated the 400m freestyle, which none of the New Caledonia coaches and kids expected, they were surprised. Unfortunately she miscounted, but these things happen, but she is happy with the performance…still medal.”

The team was back in the pool for finals last night after qualifying during yesterday’s preliminaries.

“Everyone is in the finals and we got a shot at about three or four medals,” Stewart said.

Weindl injured

Meanwhile, the NMI female netters battled Palau for the bronze medal and encountered an unfortunate situation, forcing the team to lose by default. NMI’s Amanda Weindl was trailing Palau’s Kelsey Isechal in their match 2-6, 0-3 when she aggravated an injury sustained during Monday’s semifinals against New Caledonia and was forced to retire. Weindl was taken to the Palau Community College medical center, where she was instructed not to bend her knee for the next four to five days. With that, Weindl will be withdrawn from singles, doubles, and mixed doubles competitions.

“She did her best but sometimes injuries happen in sports and its unfortunate, but its part of the game,” said tennis coach Jeff Race.

While Weindl was undergoing examination, teammate Kana Aikawa was having a blast on the court. The University of Hawaii-Manoa tennis player dominated Palau’s Kelly Koskelin and easily cruised to a 6-1 win in the opening set.

Aikawa carried her dominance over to the second set, and after knotting the score at 1-1, the CNMI representative went Anatahan and exploded for five straight points to end the match, 6-1.

“It was some of the best tennis I’ve ever seen her [Aikawa] play…just a terrific result and she was pretty overpowering,” Race said.

The CNMI, however, was a player to player short the doubles portion, and lost by default to hand Palau the bronze.

“I’m not disappointed at my players because injuries do happen, but just disappointed that we had the opportunity…I think we had a better team than Palau,” Race said. “I’m really optimistic and am positive about Kana’s hopes to do well in the individual competition.”

CNMI one-hits Solomon Islands

Also having a great day were the CNMI baseball players, who bounced back from their rain-shortened loss to Palau by trouncing Solomon Islands, 7-0, courtesy of a combined effort from pitchers Byron Kaipat, Frank Hocog, and Luis Iguel, as well as solid defensive stops.

CNMI got off to a good start as speedster Tyrone Omar led off with a single to start the game. He stole second, advanced to third on a defensive miscue, and later scored on another error.

CNMI went back to work in the fourth inning, with Tony Celis leading off with a single and scoring on a hard-hit triple by slugger Joey Dela Cruz, who later crossed home plate on a sacrifice fly by Peter Tomokane.

CNMI added a run in the next inning as Matthew Kintol reached on an error, took second and third on balks, and scored.

Two more runs came in during the sixth inning with Dwight Quitano and Omar rounding the diamond, while Jester Garcia walked and scored in the seventh to cap the offensive charge.

Working the mound well was starter Byron Kaipat, who tossed four scoreless innings in which he allowed just one hit while striking out eight batters, including striking out five of the six batters he faced in the second and third innings. Frank Hocog was also superb and pitch two shutout innings, while Luis Iguel came on in the seventh and retired the next three batters—two on strikes—to end the game.

Dela Cruz went 2-for-5 with two runs batted in and a run scored to lead Team CNMI while Omar had two hits and two runs.

Raynald Salvador got Solomon Islands’ only hit of the game, going 1-for-2.

In other news, the men’s fast pitch softball team suffered their second defeat, losing to Papua New Guinea, 6-0, while Milli Saiki and 15-year-old Melissa Halaby fell to New Caledonia in women’s beach volleyball 11-21 and 11-21.

Meanwhile, Darrel Rologat was back on the track last night competing in the men’s 200m sprint and the women’s softball team was battling Palau. Results weren’t available as of press time.

Also, teams from the CNMI continued to arrive, with table tennis reaching the Palau Community College yesterday afternoon. The canoe team was expected to arrive last night, while triathlon arrives on Friday.