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PSS/NMA XC qualifier at Ladder Beach tomorrow
Run Saipan will be hosting the second PSS/NMA Cross Country Qualifier at Ladder Beach tomorrow, Sept. 18.
Registration will start at 6am and the elementary school race will begin at 6:30am, followed by the middle school and high school divisions. The courses will begin and end at the Ladder beach road with the high school division looping down to Obyan and then back. As all cross country events, elementary school is one mile, middle school is 2 miles and high school is a 5K race.
Run Saipan is also partnering with Salty Skin Pacific to offer an open division in celebration of International Coastal Cleanup Day. Participants will run down the back road connecting Ladder Beach and Obyan Beach where a representative from Salty Skin Pacific will hand them a garbage bag to clean up the road on the way back. “Once runners turn in their garbage bags, there will be a lottery for some great prizes,” said Edward Dela Cruz Jr., president of Run Saipan. On the beach side, Saipan International School will also help out by having its community cleanup Ladder Beach itself.
“It is these kind of community partnerships that will help us grow athletics and increase cardiovascular health in the CNMI,” said Nick Gross, the PSS athletic director. “By working with the federations and the community at large, we have the chance to build something really special here.”
Ron Snyder, NMA coach and this year’s cross country meet director, added, “We are all overwhelmed at how the sport has developed over the last few years. SIS hosted one of the qualifiers in 2019 but this year Saipan International School, Run Saipan, Kagman High School and Northern Marianas Athletics are all hosting an event.”
The Public School System has partnered with Northern Marianas Athletics, the governing body of athletics in the CNMI, to organize track and field as well as cross country events in the 2021-22 school year. (PR)
