By Jonathan V. Perez
Variety News Staff

TRACKSTERS Dexter Dillay, Noriko Jim and Nate Mateo, and cagebelle Chelsea Ruluked were named the December athletes of the month at last Thursday’s meeting of the Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association at the Gilbert C. Ada Gym.
Dillay and Jim earned the Male and Female Athletes of the Month while Mateo and Ruluked gained the Male and Female Student Athletes of the Month.
The 21-year old Dillay joined a nine-man CNMI team that competed in the Oceania Grand Prix Championships in Apia, Samoa.
Dillay saw action in men’s octathlon where he recorded a 6.42-meter leap in the long jump event to finish third.
His 6.42 leap set a new CNMI record shattering the previous national record of 6.19 meters. It also bested the 6.38 record of Kiribati’s Buraieta Yeeting in last year’s 6th Micronesian Games.
Dillay was in second place overall in the octathlon entering the final day of the Oceania Championship but got injured in the men’s 110 hurdles which dropped him to fifth place overall.
Jim, who took some time off from competitive races, came back with a bang winning the women’s solo division of the 24th Island Relay with a time of one hour, 48 minutes and 59 seconds to finish fourth overall.
Mateo won the gold in the boys’ division of the 2006 All Schools Cross Country Championship and led Marianas High School to the overall team title.
He also won a silver in the Oceania Championships in Samoa after finishing the men’s 18-and-under 3.5-kilometer cross country race with a time of 14:57. Guam’s David Townsel won the gold, 14:40.
Ruluked, who was nominated by the Basketball Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, earned the female student athlete honors with her impressive performance in the Mayor’s Office Christmas Cup.
She showed in the tournament that she can play against the boys leading all scorers with a 22.5-point per game average.
Ruluked scored 32 of her team’s 53 points against Tinian in the finals and was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Other nominees in the four categories were Rezne Wong, Grace Kimball and Kensuke Kimura of swimming, Melody Johnson and Christian Miller of tennis and 14-year-old middle distance runner Jacque Wonenberg.