“Without you guys, this would be pointless,” meet director and Saipan International School headmaster Dr. Ron Snyder told the student runners.
“You guys did an amazing job,” he added. “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 them.”
The girls of Agape Christian School pose with the perpetual plaque for topping the middle school division of the 2020-2021 Public School System/Northern Marianas Athletics All School Cross Country. Photo by James F. Sablan Jr.
The boys of Saipan International School pose with the perpetual plaque for the high school division of the 2020-2021 Public School System/Northern Marianas Athletics All School Cross Country. Photo by James F. Sablan Jr.
PSS athletic director Nick Gross, for his part, said: “We…want to get everyone together to try and honor you as athletes and your schools, for representing them and for a job well done over the course of this season.”
“This year,” he added, “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 boys and girls categories for the elementary division.”
Receiving the elementary school co-ed division perpetual plaque were Saipan International School runners Finn Altizer, Elizabeth Culp, Suki Peng, Landon Pudney, Faith Arriola and Windsor Gross
For topping the middle school division, the girls of Agape Christian School took the stage: Barbara Wang, Serena Chen, Esther Xu, Ruth Zhang, and Jenny Xu.
Sharing the limelight were the boys of ACS: Peter Peng, Joseph Li, Danny Cheng, and Boxin Chen.
Agape Christian School also claimed the girls high school division, thanks to runners Emma Pang, Grace Shi, Eunice Xu, Elizabeth Xu, Sally Wu and Vivian Wu.
For their part, the Saipan International School high school boys won the perpetual plaque: Rex Pixley, Samuel Culp, Charles McDonald, Andrew Sablan, Jimin Wu, and Jesus Sablan.
NMA general secretary Robin Sapong commended the participating schools and students.
“You guys are the grassroots,” Sapong said. “Hopefully, we [can] look forward to a [new] season that is more adaptive…moving forward. I think this is the way it is going to look for sports.”
Sponsorship
During the awards ceremony, Carline Sablan, executive director of the Northern Marianas Sports Association, and Ray Tebuteb, Northern Marianas Athletics president, announced that NMA is 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 school division for a total of 10 runners to be sponsored by NMA for this year’s Jingle Rock Virtual Run,” Snyder said.
The event is a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation which helps fulfill the wishes of children with a critical illness.
“It’s a very honorable and a great thing we are supporting,” Snyder said.
