The Sports Leigh-Out Oct. 25-31

Hafa Adai and Tirow sports fans, this is Leigh Gases with this week’s Sports Leigh-Out brought to you by Joeten Motors!

Let’s take a closer look at what our athletes have been up to in off-island competitions and on their home turf—whether it’s on the pitch, mat, courts, fields, track, pools, or the beautiful ocean.

Team Micronesia competes in Oceania Cup: Tan breaks multiple records; Hawley and Munnis bag medals

Team Micronesia, which includes athletes from the CNMI, Guam, Palau, Kiribati, and Nauru, are competing in the Oceania Athletics Cup in Tonga.

The CNMI’s athletes are Tania Tan, Maria Igitol, and Simon Tang. Meanwhile, James Munnis III and Krista Hawley are competing in the Masters division.

Tan set the national record in the 1,500m with a time of 5:00.76, and a PB and national record in the 3,000m with a time of 10:29.42.

Hawley won two gold medals—in the women’s 55 100m and in the 200m, while Munnis earned a silver in the men’s 50 800m.

Stay tuned for the full story.

Cardinals sweep Falcons for 3-peat

The Galaxy Cardinals are building a dynasty in the Saipan Baseball League as they clinched the title three years in a row after they swept the Falcons in two games out of three on Monday and Wednesday at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Baseball Field.

Stay tuned for the full story.

NMI bags 6 medals in Micro Cup Canoe Race

The Saipan Paddling Club showed out for the 28-member CNMI delegation in the 25th Annual Micronesian Cup Canoe Race in Palau held from Oct. 24-26 as they bagged a total of six medals—one gold, two silver, and three bronze.

Some members of the CNMI team are familiar with Palau’s waters as they competed in the recent Pacific Mini Games, and while they didn’t bring home any medals then, they got to bring some hardware back this time around.

Despite the unpredictability and challenging weather and water conditions, the CNMI team opened the event with a bang as junior paddler Tyler Andrew struck gold in the V1 junior boys 500m sprints with a time of 3:08:01. Two more medals were then won by V1 paddlers, with Jenisha Dubrall bagging a bronze in the women's 500m sprint with a time of 3:21:13, and Joe Weaver also winning a bronze in the masters men 500m sprint at 3:12:63.

In the V6 races, teamwork and power pushed the SPC women’s team to clinch silver with a time of 3:09.57; the mixed team also won silver at 5:35:94; and the 1,000m women’s team bagged bronze at 6:11:94.

The team was made up of SPC’s Dubrall, Andrew, Weaver, Dayna Macaranas, Grace Choi, Michael Tan, Catherine Atalig, Liza Atalig, Naomi Billimon, Jerome Ignacio, Erryne Dasalla, Marianas Pacific Paddlers’ Cassandra Camacho, Halle Martineau, Solly Takai, Naomi Lizama, Nina Manglona, Dee Hermosilia, Joan Reyes, Chico Reyes, Zack Dela Cruz, Ohren Ohry, Elizabeth Church, Maria Ornes, Max Garcia, Annie Trusso, Selm Taitano, Beth Deleon Guerrero. They were coached by national team coach and national federation president Justin Andrew.

Hot Shots, Arc Angels, and Bem Ermii take Vega Environmental 3x3 titles

The Vega Environmental 3x3 Basketball Tourney wrapped up on Wednesday with Hot Shots (U18), Arc Angels (women’s), and Bem Ermii (men’s) taking the titles in their respective divisions at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Stay tuned for the full story.

Hopwood reclaims girls soccer tiara

It was a battle of reptiles in the championships once again, but this time, the southside Hopwood Middle School Hilitais got the better of the Saipan International School Geckos in a lopsided 10-1 final to claim the 2025-2026 PSS-NMIFA Girls Middle School Soccer League title on Tuesday at the NMI Soccer Training Center.

The Hilitais’ strategy of high pressing and long shots paid off as evident to their 10 goals. Their almost nonstop bombardment and pressure on the defense even caused an own goal in the 42nd minute after a corner kick by Anica Aquino.

Throughout, the Hilitais had the upper hand with majority of the possession and conversion of attempts at the goal. The first one came off the cleat of Anica Aquino just three minutes into the match which set the tone for the rest of gameplay. It was a level playing field 10 minutes later after the Geckos’ Leilani Ruszala shot in a penalty to get them on board. But, HMS’ Darshwana Chhetri put them up again in the 13th minute for a 2-1 game.

After that, SIS couldn’t find the back of the net as HMS’ defense had the ball on lockdown. The Geckos had multiple chances at the net, but were trumped either by saves by HMS’ keeper Hayven Moteisou, or by their defense-line. It was all Hilitais from there as Aubygale Castro scored in the 20th, and Angel Calayag went back-to-back for a 5-1 lead.

The second half was yet another onslaught of goals by the Hilitais as Chhetri got on board again, joined by Princess Gariguez who shot two, and Calayag once more.

For her exceptional work overall during the finals, Chhetri was named the Most Valuable player. The most goals in the whole season was scored by Calayag with 18, who was honored with the Golden Boot Award.

With Chhetri, Aquino, Castro, Gariguez, Calayag, and Moteisou, were Grace Arkoh, Anna Becina, Naliya Daikichy, Althea De Belen, Luwaisor Fitial, Trisha Herrera, Sa Rang Lee,, Juana Nocos, Athitaya Sawikan, Manyah Villagomez, and Lara Zapanta.

Third place went to Dandan Middle School in a thrilling overtime shootout, (6)2-2(5), against Tanapag Middle School.

Taflinger, Santos lead NMI x-country team to podium finish in Guam

The elite 14-member NMI high school cross country team put their best foot forward and closed out the cross country season on a high note with a podium finish at the annual Asia Pacific Invitational Cross Country Championship held last Friday and Saturday in Guam.

Speedsters and this school year’s PSS-NMA All Schools Cross Country champions, Saipan International School Geckos Victor Nash Santos and Addalee Taflinger, capped the relay portion of the event with a bronze medal.

The other relay pairs for team NMI were Takeru Jim and Dianna Zheng who finished 23rd place, and Landen Taflinger and Orica George finished 25th place, for an overall fourth place standing out of 11 teams and 67 pairs in the relay portion of the event.

In the first portion of the event, the individual races, even with no podium finishes by the NMI delegation, Santos and Taflinger still made it to the Top 10 in their divisions. Taflinger finished sixth overall in the girls division with a time of 22:17.50, while Santos secured eighth overall in the boys division with a time of 17:36.30. With their finishes, they were awarded with “All-Island” honors.

After both events, team NMI settled for fifth place overall with a strong overall performance as every boy finished in the top 51 out of 128 runners, and every girl finished in the top 61 out of 94 runners.

With Taflinger, Santos, Jim, Zheng, Landen, and George on the NMI team were Victor Neil Santos, Michael Miller, Ziheng Cai, Yongqi Fan, Jian Chun, Jiahui Chen, Zhaoyu Shen, and Jiamei Hong.

TRAC hosts Tide & Stride Aquathlon and 10K run

The Triathlon Association of the CNMI held its Tide & Stride Aquathlon and 10K run on Sunday at Kilili Beach.

The event was open to both kids and adults, who came out for a morning of swimming and running along the scenic Kilili Beach and Beach Road Pathway. A special course was also set up for the U6 and U12 kids.

The aquathlon included a 2.5K run, a 1,000m swim, and another 2.5K run. There was also a 10K run for those who didn’t want to do the swim.

The U12 boys Top 3 were Gabriel Walsh at 16:08; Declan Spaeth finished at 17:39; and Brayden Brennfleck at 19:40. Lovel Spaeth at 16:26, Olivia Walsh with 18:30, and Mika McKagan at 22:34 rounded up the Top 3 of the U12 girls division.

In the U12 teams division, first place was Team Vanwinkle—Ame Winkfield, and Nadine Vandam with a time of 16:09, while second place was Team Reeftastic—Reef Fraische and Laura Fraische at 31:57.

The littlest kids—the U6 division boys Top 3 were Franco Allen-Gibson at 5:03, Levi Yarbrough at 5:30, and Zeke Bauer at 6:56, while Top 3 in the girls were Vida Beyer at 5:00, Ceylon Willsey at 5:19, and Adeline Brook at 9:49.

First place in the aquathlon teams were national swimmers Richard Zhao, Kouki Watanabe, and Just Ma. In second place were Sari Barman, Maria Batallones, and Maria Guerrero.

For the adult aquathlon portion, the male Top 3 were Christian Villacrusis with a time of 41:25, Jacoby Winkfield finished at 45:28, and Tyce Mister at 48:56. Meanwhile, the Top 3 females were Denise Myers at 45:47, Heather Brook at 46.55, and Shawna Brennfleck at 47:55. Meanwhile, the 10K was finished by Pam Walsh at 1:06:46.

NSA’s Little Braves off to Korea for exchange games

A youth baseball team—the Little Braves from the Natibu Sports Association (NSA) consisting of 11 players aged 11-12, are on their way to Hongseong, South Korea to participate in the 3rd annual Kim Tae‑kyun Baseball Camp’s three-day exchange games from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

One team from Korea and two teams from Japan will be joining the CNMI in the games that will give valuable international baseball competition experience to the youth.

The team is comprised of Dylan Barcinas, Nate Nekai, Chance Reyes, Damian Herman, Dayton Marchadesch, Damian Sablan, Ralph Magofna Jr., Lennox Sablan, Jesse Cabrera II, Elijah Babauta, and Nethaniel Neth. They are joined by manager Vincent Camacho Jr. and coaches Ian Norita and Nick Nekai. Camacho said the team has been practicing and is looking forward to this first-time participation and will hopefully continue with more in the future.