Oceania vets lead multiple medalists

Oceania Athletics Association Area Championship veterans Jerald Castillo and Donavin Ada led eight other individuals who won two or more medals in the boys U18 division of last month’s 12th Public School System/McDonald’s All Schools Athletics Championship.

Jerald Castillo, fourth left back, and Donavin Ada, sitting third left, starred for the Marianas High School Dolphins in the Public School System/McDonald’s All Schools Athletics Championships. (Jon Perez)

Castillo and Ada—who were members of the CNMI national team that competed in the 2015 edition of the Area championship in Barlow Park in Cairns, Australia—combined for seven of Marianas High School’s 10 medals with the Dolphins collaring five gold.

Kagman High School’s Jack Unsa and Angelo Racadio, Agape Christian School’s Caleb Wang and Allan Zhao, Saipan Southern High School’s Seiya Eda, Tinian’s Michael Naputi and Zachariah Hofschneider, and MHS’ Edmund Borja were the other multiple medalists.

Castillo had a 2-1-1 haul, while Ada ruled all of his three events and Borja won two bronze medals.

Castillo topped the 60-meter run in 7.12 seconds, relegating Unsa (7.37) and Hopwood Junior High School’s Jay Jay Jones (7.52) to the silver and bronze medals, respectively. Castillo earned his second gold in the 200m run, completing the race in 25.03 seconds to reset KHS’ Yoshi Mafnas last year’s time of 25.11. Racadio came in second (25.82) and Unsa third (26.41).

Ada, who won the boys’ javelin throw bronze in Cairns with a 41.02m throw, bested his opponents in the long jump, discus and javelin. He leapt a distance of 5.85m to win the long jump gold then threw for 32.60m to break Hofschneider’s 2014 record of 27.84m in the discus event.

Ada completed his impressive performance when he improved his javelin mark in Cairns with a 41.36m distance. He also bested Kagman’s Jason Lampkin’s 2014 record of 36.98m.

Tinian’s Michael Cabulay (5.46m) and Castillo (5.40m) finished second and third behind Ada in the long jump, while Naputi (23.49m) and Hofschneider (22.91m) rounded the Top 3 in the discus throw. Augustin Aguon of Kagman (31.2m) and Borja (27.39m) settled for the silver and bronze in the javelin throw.

Racadio and Unsa gave Kagman a 1-2 finish in the century dash with the former clocking in at 11.82 seconds and the latter posting 11.90. Racadio’s time was 0.11 second faster than his own record of 11.93 seconds made last year.

Unsa bounced back to win the 400m run gold with 59.17 seconds, while Castillo was a close second for silver (59.57) and Hopwood’s Balbin finished third (1:02.07).

ACS middle distance runner Caleb Wang won the gold in the 800m (2:28.89) and 3,000m (11:34.34) runs. Eda (2:30.25) and MHS’ John Mendoza (2:32.46) came in at second and third in the 800m run with the former winning another silver in the 3,000m run (11:40.65), while Zhao copped the bronze (11:56.98).

Eda topped the 1,500m run in 5:30.09, while Zhao (5:30.09) and Wang (5:30.76) settled for the silver and bronze, respectively.

Hofschneider gave Tinian its lone gold in the shot put event with a throw of 12.76m, while his teammate Naputi claimed the silver with 10.98m. Both of their marks were better than Lampkin’s 2014 record (10.86m). Borja won the bronze and was 0.16m short of also besting Lampkin’s mark when the former’s throw reached 10.70m.