Swimmers raise NMI medal haul to 14

The NMI got another boost in the medal standings courtesy of members of the swim team, who hauled in another five shining hardware Wednesday night at the Palau National Swimming Pool as action in the 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games continued.

With three days of competition complete, all members of the swim team have something to show for, with each accounting for at least one of the 14 medals won by the NMI.

Female sensation Nina Mosley continued her successful charge and earned another silver medal in the women’s 100m Backstroke, edging New Caledonia’s Ines Horngren with a time of 1:10.12, and just a little over a second behind Delphine Bui-Duyet, also of New Caledonia, who took gold.

The NMI also medaled in the second event of the evening as young gun Juan Camacho took home a bronze in the men’s 200m Backstroke in 2:24.94. Younger brother Michael also had a solid outing and placed fourth in a time of 2:27.21.

Mosley then teamed up with Melissa Coleman, Minerva Cabrera, and Nicole Calvo to take silver in the women’s 400m Freestyle Relay, with Calvo capping the impressive push, touching the wall after the team combined for swim for 4:19.26, just three seconds behind gold medal winner New Caledonia, which clocked in at 4:16.62. Guam took bronze in 4:30.5.

David Palacios also added another medal to his name, bagging the silver in the men’s 50m Butterfly. The Division of Agriculture employee found himself in between New Caledonia swimmers and made his presence felt by completing the task in 27.5 seconds.

Shortly after, Cabrera increased the CNMI medal haul by placing third in the women’s 100m Breaststroke, finishing in 1:20.03. She was followed by teammate Myana Welch, who had another solid outing and finished a respectable fourth in 1:20.6.

Rezne Wong also had a decent charge in the pool, placing fourth in the men’s 200m Breaststroke in 2:44.94.

Male spikers break into win column

Meanwhile, the CNMI men’s beach volleyball squad broke into the win column yesterday, taking two sets against Solomon Islands at the Long Island courts.

Both Nan Inthraluk and Don Dunlop have been coming close but falling just a bit short in their first two outings, however, this time out the two managed to juice up just enough to beat their counterparts. The two face New Caledonia today at 10am and battle Guam tomorrow at 2pm.

The women’s team, however, was not as fortunate, putting up a strong fight against southern neighbor Guam before faltering in straight sets.

Milli Saiki and 15-year-old Melissa Halaby played tough in the opening set, fighting back from several three-point deficits to give Guam’s Lisa Bordallo and Aubrey Posadas a run for their money. Saiki and Halaby knotted the score and 12 apiece and remained neck and neck, eventually grabbing a 15-13 lead.

After talking things over during a time out, Bordallo and Posadas regrouped and took five of the next six points to regain advantage, 18-16.

Team CNMI, however, refused to give in and again knotted the score at 19-19, capping their 3-1 run with an ace by Halaby.

Bordallo then connected on two kills to close the set, 21-19.

The tightly fought bout carried over to the second set, with Guam grabbing advantage and CNMI continuing to recover and even things up. Well-placed hits and serves enabled Team CNMI to take a 14-12 lead, however, Posadas’ jump serve and hard hits, as well as several miscues by NMI enabled Guam to pull ahead for the 21-14 win.

NMI resumes action against Kiribati at 2pm and return tomorrow against Solomon Islands at 10am.

Table tennis kicks off

The CNMI men’s table tennis team also had a busy day, competing in four team events. The team of Budhi Gurung, Chen Lin Ying, and Su Yong Dong faced New Caledonia in their opening match and gave a good fight before faltering, 7-2.

CNMI’s two wins came courtesy of Chen, who evened the overall score at 1-1 after beating Vincent Dey in four games.

After dropping the opening set, 6-11, Chen came back strong and quickly returned the favor by winning 11-7. He carried his momentum into the third set and came out with another positive result with an 11-9 win.

Dey tried to force a fifth set and gave Chen a run, however, the NMI representative managed to control his hits and ended the game at 11-9.

Gurung won the other match, also beating Dey in five games. Like Chen, Gurung had to fight off an early deficit after losing to Dey, 7-11, in the opening set. He responded by beating Dey by the same score, but the New Caledonia player managed to come back from a 10-8 deficit in the third game and won 12-10.

With his back against the wall, Gurung retaliated in the fourth and forced a fifth game, 11-8. There, he opened a 3-0 lead and trailed only twice before closing the match at 11-9.

Rain halts baseball, softball, and tennis

Rain also continued to pour yesterday, forcing officials to postpone baseball and softball games. NMI baseball was scheduled to take the field at 12pm while the fast pitch softball team turned back from facing FSM at 11:30am. The women’s softball team had their 4pm game against FSM cancelled also.

On Wednesday, the NMI women’s softball team fell against Palau, 18-6.

Also, tennis singles was pushed back by rain.

Tim Quan, Jeff Race, and Daniel Son will play for the men’s side, while Kana Aikawa will be the lone women’s representative.

According to coach Jeff Race, Aikawa’s play in the women’s team competition enabled her to be among the top seeds in the singles. The University of Hawaii-Manoa student-athlete is seeded third.

Paddlers arrive

The NMI Paddlers arrived for competition Wednesday night and yesterday afternoon took part in the canoe opening ceremony in Meyuns. Coach Ed Johnson again stressed that despite being a very young team, “we still look good and we’ll be okay.”

Officials and all participants gathered at the canoe venue for the blessing of the canoes. Action kicks off this morning at 7am.

Meanwhile, Darrel Roligat ran like the wind and completed the 200m sprint in 23.68 seconds, good enough to advance to the semifinals Wednesday night at the Palau National Track and Field facility, however, he was bumped off after being disqualified for accidentally stepping on the line during the race. Had he not been disqualified, he would’ve finished third in his heat, beating Jesse Hairens of the Federated States of Micronesia and Peter Rear of the Marshall Islands.