{"id":403017,"date":"2023-12-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=403017"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Agape-Youth-Team-1-tops-youth-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Agape-Youth-Team-1-tops-youth-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Agape Youth Team 1 tops youth division"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agape Youth Team 1 topped the under 18 division of the new Northern Marianas Athletics\u2019 42nd Christmas Island Relay 13.1-mile course from Hyatt Regency Saipan to Marpi and back last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Agape student-athletes started the Christmas weekend off on the right foot and swept the competition in the youth and open division. In the youth division, they outran three other teams with a time of 1:21.41.<\/p>\n

The team was captained by Daniel Song with team members John Chen, Jeshurun He, Daniel Yang, and Rayviel Escarlan.<\/p>\n

A close second place went to Team Santa Youth 2023 captained by Andrei Kaithlyn Chavez with a time of 1:22.54. They were initially in the lead but got lost toward the end of the course which allowed Agape Youth Team 1 to overtake them for first place.<\/p>\n

Third place was Agape Youth Team 2 captained by Stephen Chen with a time of 1:27.52.<\/p>\n

Agape Youth Team 1 captain Song said that the course was \u201cpretty good. You run to the turning point and back, so you get familiar with where you\u2019re running. It\u2019s easier to know which runner should be running which leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how they felt with the first-place win even with Team Santa Youth in the lead, they said, \u201cwe believe it\u2019s a miracle from God. the other team, they\u2019re like 16-year-olds, and we\u2019re younger than them. They actually took the lead, but when they ran back, they lost the trail, and we somehow came in first.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team then thanked their school\u2019s principal and their driver, and above all, God.<\/p>\n

Run Saipan president Edward Dela Cruz Jr. said of the new course, \u201cthe beautiful thing about this course is that it\u2019s out-and-back, and everyone got to high-five and cheer everyone down and back.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s event, Dela Cruz said they started the non-competitive family teams first with a 15-minute head start before the competitive teams.<\/p>\n

He added that the teams kind of met in the turnaround point at Kensington Hotel Saipan, \u201cso it was kind of like a Christmas mosh party outside between all the teams.\u201d Dela Cruz then said that the new course will most likely be the course again next year if Saipan\u2019s roadway construction is not completed.<\/p>\n

This year, there were 21 teams in the race for the open, youth, and non-competitive divisions.<\/p>\n

The sponsors of this year\u2019s race were Coca-Cola Beverage Co. (Micronesia), Inc., TSL Foundation, Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan, McDonald\u2019s of Guam & Saipan, IT&E, Northern Marianas Sports Association, Run Saipan, Department of Public Safety, and Marianas High School National Honor Society.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Agape Youth Team 1 runs to the finish line at the Hyatt Regency Saipan during the Northern Marianas Athletics’ 42nd Christmas Island Relay last Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

First place Agape Youth Team 1, middle in red; second place Team Santa Youth 2023 left in blue; and Agape Youth Team 2, right, pose for a group photo after the awarding of Northern Marianas Athletics’ 42nd Christmas Island Relay last Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agape Youth Team 1 topped the under 18 division of the new Northern Marianas Athletics\u2019…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403017","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=403017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}