{"id":402000,"date":"2023-11-29T02:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T02:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=402000"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Agape-the-TakeCare-Insurance-Interscholastic-Badminton-League-2023-2024-MS-Champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Agape-the-TakeCare-Insurance-Interscholastic-Badminton-League-2023-2024-MS-Champs\/","title":{"rendered":"Agape the TakeCare Insurance Interscholastic Badminton League 2023-2024 MS Champs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After crushing their opponents, Agape Christian School was declared the Middle School Division champions during the TakeCare Insurance Interscholastic Badminton League 2023-2024 finals at the ADA Gymnasium in Susupe, last November 18.<\/p>\n<p>Topping the semi-finals in the top one bracket with a 31-14 win-loss record, against opponent Saipan International School, who claimed the second bracket and a 41-4 win-loss record. Initially, SIS tied with Hopwood Middle School 2 (41-19), but SIS won the tiebreak due to head-to-head record, as the Geckos beat the Hilitai in pool play 10-5.<\/p>\n<p>So as fate would have it, SIS went head-to-head Agape in the finals with Agape claiming the win for the Girls Singles, Boys Singles, and Boys Doubles. Agape\u2019s Joanna Zhang defeated Aubrey White, 21-9, 21-6, Daniel Yang defeated SIS\u2019 Jude Rayphand, 21-8 and 21-12, and Agape\u2019s Daniel and Joseph Yang topping SIS\u2019 Kanoa Owens and Jude Rayphand, 21-11 each game.<\/p>\n<p>SIS showed their determination on the court as well, securing a win in the Women\u2019s Doubles, when their Lina Tsukagoshi and Adelle Taflinger defeated Agape\u2019s Joyce Ying and Kate Xu, 21-7, each game and Lina Tsukagoshi and Michael Guintu defeated Agape\u2019s Joseph Yang and Joanna Zhang, 21-20, 22-20 in the Mixed Doubles.<\/p>\n<p>At the end Agape took it home with a 9 win to SIS\u2019 6.<\/p>\n<p>When speaking to ACS administrator Pastor Kok H. Pang, he thanked NMBA, Take Care Insurance and PSS for organizing and sponsoring the event, and for all the other schools who came to play \u201cI think this was a short season and I&#8217;m glad our students are enjoying it. Well done to the organizers and the PSS Athletic program and NMBA for organizing this. I also want to say thank you so much to the parents for letting their kids be a part of playing Sports. And I want to thank God for<\/p>\n<p>Giving us these talented students who want to get involved in sports, and their willingness to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He noted how the win was a welcome surprise \u201cWhen we first started we had no idea, because we knew that SIS were the defending champions for the last two years and they were very strong in the women&#8217;s division. We were not sure whether we would qualify in the championship or not&#8230; \u201c he said adding that he was grateful. He shared that in the coming years as they play more that their team gets better and that he looks forward to the growth of the NMI Badminton Association and the sport overall. &#8221; I see a lot of youngsters rising up, and they have a good program they can compete in games outside of our Island; and I think this is good for youngsters to be involved in sports. This will help them mentally and socially, and is great grounds to work with people. The world is not getting better but we need to encourage one another at the end.\u201d He said<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in the finals Hopwood Middle School faced off with Saipan Community School for third place, and Hopwood took the win in the Girls Singles where Hopwood\u2019s Danielle Joson faced SCS\u2019 Vivian Chung, with Joson taking the first game 21-15, and Chung taking the second 16-21, the tie breaker secured the Girls Singles for Hopwood 21-20. In the Boys Doubles, SCS\u2019 Jihun Park and Richard Zhao defeated Hopwood\u2019s Peng Lin and John Quidato, taking the win 21-13, 21-17.<\/p>\n<p>Hopwood took it home for the boy\u2019s singles, girls doubles, and the mixed doubles as their Walter Clave defeated Jihun Park, 21-14, 16-21, 21-13 in the singles, Danielle Joson and Precious Galapon defeated SCS\u2019 Jinny Lee and Dayeon Ko, 21-15, 21-13, and Clave and Galapon defeated SCS\u2019 Soo Ho Jin and Ko in the mixed doubles 21-14, 21-15. Hopwood secured the last podium with their 10 over SCS\u2019 5.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/129577ad916e4a280516d35141004df6.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Agape Christian School Badminton team, named TakeCare Insurance Interscholastic Badminton League 2023-2024 Middle School Division champions take a photo after the finals at the ADA Gymnasium in Susupe, last November 18.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; CHRYSTAL MARINO<br \/>\n<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After crushing their opponents, Agape Christian School was declared the Middle School Division champions during&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402000","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\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}