LAST Friday, the 2020-2021 Public School System/Northern Marianas Athletics held it’s award ceremony hosted by Saipan Vegas where perpetual trophies of each winner was handed along with the announcement of NMA sponsoring 10 runners for the upcoming Jingle Rock Virtual Run.
“Without you guys this would be pointless. You guys did an amazing job, it was a great season. We don’t often have cross country wearing masks so it’s pretty impressive, all the different precautions we had to take, we all went through it.” PSS Meet Director Dr. Ron Snyder. PSS Athletic Director Nick Gross also added, “We did want to get everyone together to try and honor you as athletes and your schools, for representing them and a job well done over the course of this season.” Gross continued, “This year, as you know, was slightly different. Some of the things we did this year we are going to probably adopt moving forward. Next year, I hope that we can put a guarantee on the fact that we will have a boys and girls category for the elementary division.”
First called up to receive an award was Saipan International School who was led by Finn Altizer, Elizabeth Culp, Suki Peng, Landon Pudney, Faith Arriola, and Windsor Gross for the Elementary School Co-ed division perpetual trophy.
In the middle school division, the girls Agape Christian School took the stage filled by Barbara Wang, Serena Chen, Esther Xu, Ruth Zhang, and Jenny Xu. Earning the other half was boys of ACS led by Peter Peng, Joseph Li, Danny Cheng, and Boxin Chen.
Agape Christian School continued to shine as their girls claimed the high school division as well with Emma Pang, Grace Shi, Eunice Xu, Elizabeth Xu, Sally Wu, and Vivian Wu. Saipan International School’s boys grabbed the other half of the perpetual trophies with Rex Pixley, Samuel Culp, Charles McDonald, Andrew Sablan, Jimin Wu, and Jesus Sablan.
Carline Sablan, Executive Director of Northern Marianas Sports Association, and President of Northern Marianas Athletics Rey Tebuteb also made an appearance sharing about NMA sponsoring 10 runners for the upcoming Jingle Rock Virtual Run.
“We communicated with the top four runners in the boys and girls from the high school division and two each from the middle schoool division for a total of 10 runners to be sponsored by NMA for this year’s Jingle Rock Virtual Run.” stated Snyder. Jingle Rock Virtual Run is a fundraiser from the Make-A-Wish Foundation which helps children with critical illness get a wish.”It’s very cool to follow up development of our students even after the event is over.” “It’s very honorable and a great thing we are supporting.” He added.
NMA’s Robin Sapong also shared a few words. “You guys are the grassroots. This is one of the things that we look forward to. Hopefully we look forward to a season that is more adaptive because moving forward, I think this is the way it is going to look for sports.”
The girls of ACS pose with the perpetual trophy of the Middle School division during last Friday’s award ceremony of the 2020-2021 PSS/NMA All School Cross Country held at the Saipan Vegas.
The boys of SIS pose with the perpetual trophy of the High School division during last Friday’s award ceremony of the 2020-2021 PSS/NMA All School Cross Country held at the Saipan Vegas
