{"id":391829,"date":"2023-05-17T06:04:34","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T20:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=391829"},"modified":"2023-05-17T06:04:34","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T20:04:34","slug":"elementary-middle-school-athletics-mvps-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/elementary-middle-school-athletics-mvps-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Elementary, middle school athletics MVPs announced"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
From left, Cody Shimizu, Gabriella Ruben, Dean Aldan, Ysabella Lenteja, Scarlett Burrell, Reyviel Escarlan, Moshe Sikkel, and Andrei Kaithlyn Chavez pose with their MVP trophies during the PSS\/McDonald\u2019s All Schools Athletics Awards Ceremony yesterday at the main McDonald\u2019s branch in Chalan Kiya. (LEIGH GASES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northern Marianas Athletics, the Public School System, and McDonald\u2019s awarded the top athletes of the 2022-2023 PSS\/McDonald\u2019s All Schools Athletics Championships that concluded over a week ago at the Oleai Track & Field.<\/p>\n

In an awards ceremony held at the main McDonald\u2019s restaurant in Chalan Kiya, MVP trophies were given to the 9U female and male divisions; the 12U female and male divisions; the 14U female and male divisions; and the 18U female and male divisions (which was reported in yesterday\u2019s newspaper.)<\/p>\n

The awardees for the elementary 9U female division went to Saipan International School\u2019s Scarlett Burrell and the for the male division, Koblerville Elementary School\u2019s Dean Aldan.<\/p>\n

For the 12U female division, Oleai Elementary School\u2019s Gabriella Ruben won the award, while Agape Christian School\u2019s Reyviel Escarlan took home the MVP trophy.<\/p>\n

The 14U female division MVP went to Tinian Jr. High School\u2019s Ysabelle Lenteja, and the male award went to SIS\u2019 Moshe Sikkel.<\/p>\n

Burrell topped the 9U 100m and 200m; Aldan won the 9U 400m; Ruben got gold in the 12U 100m and 200m; Escarlan topped the 12U 400m and 800m events; Lenteja was first in the 14U 100m, 200m, 400m, and long jump; and Sikkel was golden in the 14U 400m and 4X400 relay, second in the 800m, and third in the 1,500m.<\/p>\n

Burrell, a 9-year-old fourth grader, said that she\u2019s happy about winning the award. The events for her were \u201cfun and very competitive but it was hard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Escarlan, a 12-year-old seventh grader, for his part said \u201cI was really happy but it was kind of scary a little bit because I wasn\u2019t sure what I was going up against. So, I was training a lot, just so that I could at least get first or second and at least get a medal. I really enjoyed racing with other people. I made a lot of friends and it was a fun experience overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lenteja, who won the MVP in her division again from 2021\u2019s competition, said she flew from Tinian to Saipan just to receive her award. She said that with winning again she wasn\u2019t surprised because she has so much focus on her training and in the competition. \u201cMy favorite event is probably short distance because I don\u2019t have enough stamina but it still feels very good to have first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Sikkel, he said he felt like he didn\u2019t deserve the award because he didn\u2019t do too well in the individual events. He did leave a message to the younger competitors and said \u201cdon\u2019t give up. Even if you didn\u2019t win in one year, you can still win the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Gross, PSS Athletics Program director, said after the awarding, \u201cOn behalf of the public school system, it is truly an honor and pleasure to be able to work with McDonald\u2019s as well as NMA and all of the schools both public and private throughout all three islands to have this all schools competition annually in athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited about the future of athletics. This year was an incredible comeback with a brand new track\u2014one of the premier tracks throughout all of Oceania.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI look forward to seeing you all again in the near future. The next events for PSS Athletic Program with our partner NMA specifically will be the Cross Country series again in early September. We\u2019re already back to the drawing board and putting together next year\u2019s schools\u2019 schedules along with the athletic programs, and we thank everybody for your continued support and partnership to live a healthier, more active life through athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northern Marianas Athletics, the Public School System, and McDonald\u2019s awarded the top athletes of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":391805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-391829","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\/391829","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=391829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}