MHS are Top 2 teams in badminton

Marianas High School’s badminton Team 1 and 2 faced off in the 2025-2026 PSS-NMIBA-TakeCare Co-Ed High School Badminton League finals after taking down each team in their path on Saturday, Mar. 14, at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

With both teams stacked with junior national team players, teammates found themselves playing against each other for the gold, with Team 1 coming away with the title.

MHS 2 managed to win the men’s singles matchup of Evan Seguritan and Marlon Bautista, with Seguritan sweeping it, 21-15, 21-12, for a one game advantage. However, MHS 1 bounced back in the women’s singles as Lina Tsukagoshi handled Danielle Joson for a 1-1 tie.

In the women’s doubles matchup, MHS 1’s Genelyn Lasangan and Ruth Bautista were in control against Kate Xu and Danielle Joson, winning 21-10, 21-13. The men’s doubles ended up deciding the championship, with MHS 1’s Dave Odicta and Brandon Manacop slipping past Evan Seguritan and Danielle Mulinyawe in a close three-set match, 21-20, 19-21, 21-19. With MHS 1’s three wins to MHS 2’s one win, the result was already settled and the mixed doubles match was not played.

Saipan Southern High School, last season’s champion, took third place.

MHS coach James Digno said of their win, “I think everyone was expecting since many of our kids are from the national team, so I’m glad that they pulled through, no hiccups in our plan so yeah, I’m just very proud of them. All credit goes to them, I just try to steer them in the right direction.”

With coaching both teams in the finals, he said, “In that situation, I just make it up to the captains of each team on how they want to do it. I just let it play out, and so far, everything went well.” The captains for Team 1 were Odicta and Bautista, while Team 2 were captained by Seguritan and Danielle.

Team 1, he said, is made up mostly of seniors, so next year might be a little tougher match, but they still have a lot of players left. “MHS is very lucky. A lot of the good players decided to go to MHS so I can’t complain about that,” he said.

On his expectations for next year, he said that it might be against SSHS again. “Southern is always strong. They still have their main national players next year, so it’s going to be a big match against Southern—and Agape too.”

Training for the season, he said, started at the beginning of the school year, showing the team’s dedication to the sport. “These guys are very dedicated. Even if I was absent for practice, they would be in practice, so all credit really does go to them,” he said.