Tinian paddlers, DFS soccer, Yap take limelight

The ping-pong team of the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino, the girls of Gregory T. Camacho Elementary School and the boys of Koblerville Elementary School, and Malaysian bowler Sarah Yap all had one thing in common after they grabbed the sports headlines last week.

Tinian brought the Goodwill Table Tennis Tournament championship trophy back to the shores of the Marianas’ gaming capital after the Zheng Ma and Luke Lu-led squad nipped erstwhile defending champion Saipan, 26-23, in the round-robin singles and doubles competition last Sunday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Saipan, however, got a consolation of sorts when 6th Micronesian Games women’s gold medalist Jean Shi captured the singles championship after beating Ma and teammate Su Yong Dong in a tiebreak.

The Garapan Elementary School pitch, meanwhile, was abuzz with activity last Nov. 4 as the DFS All School Soccer Tournament held its championship round.

At the end of the day, the girls of Gregory T. Camacho Elementary School and the boys of Koblerville Elementary School were crowned champions.

It wasn’t a walk in the park for either team though, as the GTC girls had to outlast home team Garapan Elementary School in a shootout, 3-2, while the KES boys finally showed their mettle in yet another shootout to beat Whispering Palm School, 3-0.

Yap, for her part, made a successful return to competitive bowling by finishing third in the 5th Guam International Tenpin Bowling Open held from Oct. 21 to Nov. 4 at the Central Lanes Bowling Center.

In the 16-game Masters event, Yap broke the 200-mark nine times to finish with an average of 204.31 pins per game. The former Malaysian national player stayed in Guam after the competition to guide three CNMI teams taking part in the 20th Asian Inter-City Bowling Championships.

In other news, Mary Louise Owen DeLeon Guerrero became the latest tanker from the CNMI to swim for a Division I school after she was accepted to the Boise State University varsity swimming team. She is expected to participate in the Western Associated Conference championships in February 2007.

The Filipino Community Church 2nd Inter-Color Basketball League Genesis Invitational Cup also kicked off with a bang Monday night with 10 teams vying for supremacy.

While play in the 2006 Inter-Government Softball League and SML Fall League were stalled because of rain, action in the MDX cage league, Rocball, NMIFA women’s and youth leagues, and the four-person beach volleyball league at the Pacific Islands Club continued in far more hospitable venues last week.