{"id":274738,"date":"2018-04-25T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T20:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=274738"},"modified":"2018-04-25T06:00:58","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T20:00:58","slug":"first-timers-deliver-for-team-nmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/first-timers-deliver-for-team-nmi\/","title":{"rendered":"First-timers deliver for Team NMI"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_274739\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-274739\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/marianas-open-new-pix.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-274739\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kier Agda tries to keep his top position against his opponent in the 191-205 lbs weight class in the 2018 Marianas Open Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Tournament held last Sunday at the Father Duenas Memorial School Phoenix Center in Mangilao, Guam. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Cuki Alvarez was pleased with Team CNMI\u2019s performance in last Sunday\u2019s 2018 Marianas Open Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Tournament after they brought home three of the 76 medals at stake in the annual competition.<\/p>\n<p>Team CNMI won a gold medal, courtesy of Giovonni Taitingfong, and two silvers from Kier Agda and Paolo Sangalang. Alvarez, BJJ professor Clinton Dela Cruz, Ken Tanzawa, and Jeff Garcia were not that lucky as they went up against tougher foes in their respective divisions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team did exceptionally well, considering that most of them competed in a BJJ event for the first time. We\u2019re coming home with medals and we\u2019re going to continue to enter more tournaments in the future,\u201d Alvarez told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the team was \u201csuper stoked\u201d before the start of the tournament, as all were eager to showcase the skills they learned from months of hard training at the TrenchTech Saipan Gym.<\/p>\n<p>It was a good turnout for Agda and Sangalang, as they gained the runner-up honors in their first off-island BJJ tournament with the latter also making his debut in a Gi event.<\/p>\n<p>Agda, who has a white belt, lost by points to Spike 22\u2019s Thomas Quitano in the 191-205 lbs weight class, while Sangalang settled for the silver when he bowed to Patrick Cruz of PureBred Jiu-jitsu Guam in the blue belt 146 -160 lbs division.<\/p>\n<p>Taitingfong, also a blue belter, won the gold in the 131-145 lbs weight category. Alvarez said Taitingfong had competed in previous Marianas Open since he studied high school in Guam.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia and Tanzawa also debuted in the tournament and went up against tougher opponents in the veteran-filled blue and purple belt divisions. Dela Cruz, meanwhile, was entered in the highly competitive black belt class. Alvarez, on the other hand, lost to eventual champion Kody Steele in the absolute brown belt division, denying him a chance to make it to the medal round.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese guys are way younger than me, some are half of my age and Steele choked me out in the three-minute mark,\u201d said Alvarez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cuki Alvarez was pleased with Team CNMI\u2019s performance in last Sunday\u2019s 2018 Marianas Open Brazilian&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":274739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7023,12919,51,20955],"class_list":["post-274738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bjj","tag-clinton-dela-cruz","tag-guam","tag-thomas-quitano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}