Six Medals for Team Marianas on Day 1

Team Marianas is already shining just one day into the 2025 Palau Pacific Mini Games, racking up a total of six medals—two gold, one silver, and three bronze—all won yesterday, June 30.

Their stellar performance stood in stark contrast to Palau’s wet and rainy weather, as the team brought the heat across different venues, going head-to-head with other Pacific island nations.

The team struck its first gold via efforts of their flagbearer—19-year-old collegiate star athlete Isaiah Aleksenko who came in first in the 50m backstroke with a time of 24.47 seconds—almost a minute ahead of the silver medalist Keha Desbordes at 25.30 seconds. Bronze was Fiji’s Hansel McCaig with a time of 25.68 seconds.

In the 100m individual medley, he grabbed his second gold with a time of 55.25 seconds. Silver went to Cook Islands’ Jacob Story at 56.08 seconds, while bronze was Tahiti’s Nael Roux with 57.22 seconds.

He said of winning his medals, “It feels great. I’m very, very happy to represent CNMI.” Aleksenko shared that his individual races that night were not his forte, but he said, “I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I always tried to keep a positive mindset. So I knew if my mindset was positive, I knew it would go well.”

On how he felt being able to go atop the podium twice for the gold medal, the Keiser University Athlete of the Year said, “It feels great that they get to see the CNMI flag and [hear] the anthem as well.” Being able to be the flagbearer once again and win medals on the first night, he said, “I’m very happy and very proud of myself as well. Without my coach, family, and teammates, I wouldn’t be where I am today without all of those guys—especially my mom because she was the one who pushed me.”

As for Batallones, she brought everything she got in her 200m breaststroke to snag the bronze with a time of 2:43.78. Gold went to New Caledonia’s Manon Baldovini at 2:36.51, and silver was Fiji’s Kelera Mudunasoko.

The 17-year-old said, of her podium win, “It was really such an honor. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it, so it was such a surprise to me.”

Almost throughout the race, she was neck and neck with the fourth place swimmer and when asked how she pulled through in the end, she said, “the whole race, I wanted to just pace myself so I don’t die out in the end. I got really scared in the last 50m but I wanted to pull through, so that’s all I was thinking about.”

With touching the end of the pool first over the fourth place swimmer, she said, “that felt so amazing because again, I didn’t expect it and this was one of my goals and I’m so proud that I got it done on the first day.”

The men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team consisting of Aleksenko, Justin Ma, Kean Pajarillaga, and Michael Miller, then capped off the night of action with a bronze medal at 3:31.56. Gold went to Tahiti at 3:26.17, and silver was Fiji at 3:26.73.

Earlier in the afternoon, wrestling’s Vincent “Beng” Palacios was on the podium first for the CNMI with a silver medal after his Freestyle 60-kg competition against Palau’s Decherong Hobson.

The 16-year-old said of his silver finish, “It felt good knowing that I haven’t done wrestling before.” He added, “I tried my best, I tried to give it my all. It didn’t feel good but it was a lesson learned and it was an experience.” On how he felt about bringing the first medal for the CNMI, he said, “It feels good. I know that the other teams are going to try their best to put the NMI on top.”

One more medal—a bronze, was wrestled for the team by way of Seth Sablan in the Freestyle 71-kg division over Palau’s Vincent Mettao.

Sablan said of his win, “It felt amazing—probably one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt for sure.” His strategy, he said, “I wrestled him before that and he beat me, so my strategy was to just be smart and like capitalize on his weaknesses. His leg was injured during the match—I didn’t mean for that to happen, like I felt bad, but I got a win.”

The team has more chances for medals as they are up to compete in Greco-Roman today and Beach Wrestling on July 2.

Va’a breaks V12 nat’l record; V1 reaches final for the 1st time

The paddlers were out in the water before the early bird and were the first of the athletes to get going on Day 1.

The NMI National Va’a Team put their best paddles and effort forward and, despite not reaching the finals, broke the national record for the V12 mixed 500m race with a time of 2:08.96.

As for the V1 500m open men, Carter Calma reached the finals in a race dominated by powerhouses of va’a in the Pacific. He settled for sixth place with a time of 2:40.90.

Head coach Justin Andrew said of the team’s performance, “Team NMI did very well. We’re very pleased with the results. In the V12, we clocked our personal best—a time of two minutes and eight seconds. We’ve never achieved that time in all our practices so this is really good. It’s good to know that we have room to improve and that’s the beginning.”

For v1 finals for the men’s, he said, “For the very first time in this level of Games, the Northern Marianas made it to the finals. We are the top six in the Pacific so very pleased with that result. Good job everybody.”

Calma said of reaching the finals, “It was a good learning experience. I think what I learned is to train quicker. I was more concentrating on the long distance but I should’ve worked a little bit more on being quick, but I think I did really well for my first V1 sprints in the Mini Pacific Games.”

Races are ongoing this morning until July 7.

Indoor volleyball teams drop first games

The NMI National Women’s Indoor Volleyball Team made their debut and played their hearts out in front of the home crowd against Palau in the morning, but came up short, 25-17, 17-25, 13-25, 24-26, in the best-of-five format.

The NMI squad came out strong in the first set, playing as one cohesive unit. But Palau found their rhythm and, backed by their home crowd, managed to take the next three sets and close out the match against the young NMI team.

The men’s team later made their return to indoor volleyball in the afternoon and lost to a much bigger and more experienced Tahiti squad in three straight sets, 13-25, 12-25, 11-25.

Matches run through until July 8.

Softball squad loses to PNG, 6-7 due to inclement weather

In the final game of the night for the NMI, the NMI Women’s Fastpitch Softball Team went up against Papua New Guinea and fell, 6-7.

With two outs in the final inning, the game was called off due to inclement weather. Under World Baseball Softball Confederation rules, if play is stopped after five innings, the team in the lead at the time is declared the winner—so the NMI took a 6-7 loss.

Despite the outcome, NMI coach Mark Flores said the team is choosing to focus on the positives. It was their first time playing together as a full squad, and the lineup looks different from the bronze medal team at the 2024 Micronesian Games. “I just want to acknowledge that this team is better than what everyone expected—that makes us excited,” he said.

They don’t play today as they are the “bye” in their bracket.

Games are scheduled to be played until July 8.