19 Total Medals So Far for Team Marianas

Day 4 of the 2025 Palau Pacific Mini Games was a tough one for Team Marianas, which added just one medal to its tally—a gold from flagbearer Isaiah Aleksenko—bringing the total to 19 medals so far. Each team and athlete rode a roller coaster of emotions, from big wins to tough losses, but our athletes continued to represent the CNMI with heart, pride, and passion.

Aleksenko has collected some serious hardware in his time at the Games as he collected his fifth gold medal—this time in his main event the 200m butterfly, giving the team a total of six gold medals. The team also has six silver and seven bronze medals for a total of 19 medals as of July 3.

He clocked in with a time of 1:58.52. The silver medalist from Tahiti, Nael Roux, was a good nine seconds behind at 2:07.18, while the bronze went to Palau's Kazuumi Nestor at 2:12.07.

The Keiser University freshman, who, just as a high school student won gold in the same event at the 2023 Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands, said that this time, he didn't really practice for it. “I didn't really practice for it so it was a little bit harder, but I did try my best but it was definitely more challenging,” he said. Their practices, he said, were mostly the 100m events as he couldn't practice for the 200m because he got sick.

On how he's feeling with the end game near as today is the last day of pool events, he said, “I'm feeling amazing. This is actually very exhausting because we wake up very early and then we end very late. It's like five days of waking up at five and ending like eight or almost nine most days—it's very exhausting.”

However, he said that it's worth it. “It's definitely worth it, you know that I get to represent CNMI. I'm very happy and definitely it's all worth it.” Today, he has final two events—the 100m backstroke and a 100m medley relay—and he looks forward to getting medals again.

The 4x50m mixed medley relay team also had a really close finish for bronze with a time of: 42.90. Bronze went to Tahiti who clocked in at 1:42.50, while Fiji finished at :40.73, and Samoa got gold at 1:40.63.

The NMI National Baseball Team won their second game in the morning against Fiji in a blowout, 15-7 final, and lost their second game in the evening in a heartbreaker against the Federated States of Micronesia, 6-5.

In their morning game, they actually had a big, 10-4 lead at the top of the sixth, but Fiji rallied at the bottom of the inning and in the last inning. Some defensive miscues allowed runners to get on base and into scoring position, then eventually to home plate. At the bottom of the sixth, it was 14-5, and after two more runs scored from Fiji, the boys in blue finally put the fire out and snagged their second win of the Games.

As for their evening game, they had a 5-3 lead at the top of the seventh, but their defense failed them again and granted FSM the winning runs and the walk off for the 6-5 final.

The women's 3x3 basketball teams were on fire as they won two games in a row again on Day 4, or in their 3x3 tourney, on Stop 3. The women's team won two of their games and reached the final stop of the day, but lost to Solomon Islands, 15-10. However, they earned more points in their conference and are sitting with 220 points. Meanwhile, the men's team are at 210 points.

The NMI Fastpitch Softball Team let another game slip from their fingers as they lost to host Palau, 8-10. They had the game tied, 8-8, but Palau didn't give up and managed to squeeze in two runs for insurance, 10-8. At the bottom of the last inning, NMI had runners in scoring position but could not capitalize and lost their third game in a row.

The silver medalists in the 2022 PMG, Logan Mister and Andrew Johnson are sitting on one win and one loss on day two of beach volleyball. In their recent game yesterday, they faced off against rival Australia in the middle of the day with the sun blazing hot over the Palauan sky.

The action was just as hot on the sand as both teams faced off again—the last time being in the 2023 Pacific Games where Australia took gold and the NMI duo took bronze. However, Mister and Johnson beat Tuvalu on their first day of games for a 1-1 record. Today, they face off against Nauru in their quest for gold and redemption.