{"id":384738,"date":"2023-02-06T06:06:30","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T20:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=384738"},"modified":"2023-02-06T06:06:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T20:06:30","slug":"interscholastic-outrigger-canoe-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/interscholastic-outrigger-canoe-is-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Interscholastic outrigger canoe is back\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Saipan Southern High School co-ed outrigger team and the Marianas High School, co-ed outrigger team, back, are seen neck-and-neck during the 500m finals on Saturday in the opening events of the co-ed high school Public School System Interscholastic Outrigger Canoe Race 2022-2023 at Kilili Beach in Susupe. (LEIGH GASES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Interscholastic va\u2019a racing competitions are back after the first race day of the co-ed high school Public School System Interscholastic Outrigger Canoe Race 2022-2023 unfolded last Saturday in the waters off Kilili Beach in Susupe.<\/p>\n

The three public high schools\u2014Saipan Southern High School, Marianas High School, and Kagman High School\u2014are in the running again for the championship this year, determined by which team garners the most points. However, on the first day of races, there were no points given out to any team yet.<\/p>\n

The sunny morning started with the 500m women\u2019s, men\u2019s, and co-ed preliminary race, followed by the 1,000m women\u2019s, men\u2019s, and co-ed preliminary race, then the 500m women\u2019s, men\u2019s, and co-ed finals, and the 1,000m finals women\u2019s, men\u2019s, and co-ed finals.<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s 1,000m finals, the Lady Dolphins paddled to victory with a time of 07:09.990; followed by the Lady Ayuyus at 07:44.490; and the Lady Mantas came in last with 07:44.060<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s 1,000m finals, Saipan Southern High School Manta Rays were one with the tide as they glided to first place with a time of 06:07.800; second was Marianas High School Dolphins with a time of 06:27.260; and Kagman High School Ayuyus clocked in at 06:28.740.<\/p>\n

The co-ed 1,000m finals was dominated again by the SHSS Mantas as they bagged first place with a time of 06:40.610; the MHS Dolphins came in at 06:53.650; and the KHS Ayuyus clocked in last with a time of 07:13.030.<\/p>\n

Justin Andrew, president of the Northern Marianas National Paddle Sports Federation, or NMNPSF, was seen out in the waters supporting the schools and the sport. He said that the young paddlers are promising and the goal is to get them to the level where they can get into the national program. On the opening day of competition, he said \u201cWe\u2019re so happy to have good weather and a good turnout.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a really better level of skills and preparedness and I think it\u2019s because of the time given to the kids. I think they started practicing in October, so that\u2019s a lot better than before\u2026 most of the kids are in outrigger clubs too,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tianna Aldan, head coach for the Dolphins, said that the hardest race is the 500m as it is the fastest, \u201cif you make a mistake, it\u2019s very easy for you to get left behind, unlike the 1,000m race, it\u2019s three turns, and there\u2019s a lot of time to catch up.\u201d On their team\u2019s chemistry, she said that \u201cwe just try to promote a very good, healthy, and safe environment for the students. I don\u2019t promote any violence or bullying so a lot of them are actually friends in and out of school, so it makes the team come together a lot better because they already know each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the competition, she said that \u201cwe\u2019re just excited to be here and it\u2019s very tough this year because everyone wants to win.<\/p>\n

Maiyah Duenas, coach for the Napu Outrigger Canoe Club, who is assisting the KHS outrigger teams, was interviewed and said that their biggest strength is the love they have for each other. \u201cThe fact that we can come together and disregard all the negative energy and just bring in the positive vibes, it\u2019ll never fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Weaver, head coach for SSHS, said that this year\u2019s competition is \u201cvery competitive. Everybody\u2019s basically the same skill level. Everybody has new paddlers and some are returning, just like our club. We have a few veterans coming back, but we have a lot of new paddlers and my women have new steerers, so it\u2019s pretty even, I believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the performance of his teams, he said \u201ceach team\u2019s getting their kinks out, fine-tuning things, and fine-tuning crews. We\u2019re just seeing how we all match up with each other. As we progress, I hope my team gets better, as I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll do the same, so we just want to stay in winning form and stay up with the competition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The championships are set for March 11.<\/p>\n

Last season\u2019s champions of the women and co-ed divisions were the KHS Ayuyus, while the SSHS Manta Rays won the perpetual championship trophy in the boys division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interscholastic va\u2019a racing competitions are back after the first race day of the co-ed high…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":384726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384738","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}