Richer by the dozen on Day 2 in Palau

07/02/2025 Koror, Palau — Team Marianas is showing out on Day 2 of the 2025 Palau Pacific Mini Games, now six medals richer for a total of 12 won so far.

The rain just won’t seem to let up in Palau and Team Marianas’ quest for medals isn’t either as the wrestling and swimming team won three more medals each.

Wrestler Seth Sablan clinched the gold medal in his Greco-Roman 71-kg matchup against Palau’s Kane Tarkong via an explosive pin move. This is Sablan’s second medal after he won bronze in the Freestyle 71-kg division over Palau’s Vincent Mettao on the first day of games on June 30.

He said on his gold medal win, “it feels amazing. There’s not a lot of words to describe it.” On how he managed to win, he said, “It’s hard to explain it… but I could say it was in the moment. And thanks to my coaches, I was able to capitalize on his mistakes. It’s more like muscle memory.”

He then said that “this is one of the best experiences I have for sure and I hope to come back for the next games… my coaches are amazing and it’s all thanks to God and I’m going to keep on progressing and getting better.”

In the 87-kg division, Miles Borja settled for silver against Samoa’s Shane Palemia. After falling short on Day 1, Borja was determined to get on the podium. He said, “It felt good. Kind of used yesterday as fuel today. There’s some familiar faces and glad to have gotten it back because I got to rematch with someone and I got him. It’s satisfying—more level headed approach today and yeah, I got it done.” 

With their performance so far, he said, “I could say we did really well considering that we’re probably the most last minute crew you can think of… but with coach Daryn, coach Jason, coach Rick, and even coach Ryan who wasn’t able to come, they really strung it together and whipped us into shape. I’m really glad to have the team behind me and not to be corny, I couldn’t have done it without them.”

As for Vincent Palacios, he entered in two weight classes and snagged a bronze in the U20 60-kg division, while in the U17 65-kg division, he placed fourth. Palacios said of his matches, “It was good. I was hoping I could've medaled in the 17 and under, but both me and my opponent showed out and it was an awesome fight.”

Today is the last day of wrestling: beach wrestling.

Our athletes in the water continued to make waves as flagbearer Isaiah Aleksenko finished with a gold medal in the 100m butterfly event with a time of 52.27 seconds. He added to his medal tally and has won three of Team Marianas’ four gold medals. 

He said of his win and race, “I wasn’t feeling my best. I didn’t get a PB but it’s fine—I got to represent the NMI—that’s all that matters.” He said he was definitely aiming for a gold in that event and is aiming for another gold in the 50m butterfly set for today. 

Maria Batallones, Day 1’s bronze medalist, added a silver medal for her 50m breaststroke swim with a time of 33.40 seconds. Ahead of Batallones was Fiji’s Kelera Mudunasoko at 32.62 seconds, and bronze went to New Caledonia’s Manon Baldovini with 35.21 seconds.

The 17-year-old said of her swim, “I feel really great because this is my event—I’m a breaststroke sprinter so I feel like I’ve accomplished my goal over here.” As the smallest in the finals and if that intimidates her, she said, “Honestly, I got used to it. At first competing, I felt really out of place. But now I just let that get in my head and I don’t want that to be a factor to my swim.”

Earlier in the day, Kean Pajarillaga bagged the bronze medal in the 800m freestyle at 8:59.35. Gold went to Tahiti’s Enoa Vial at 8:22.80, and silver was also Tahiti’s Nael Roux at 8:58.20.

Pajarillaga said of his win, “I felt honestly pretty good. I’m more of a night time/afternoon swimmer, so seeing my results in the 800m freestyle, I’m pretty satisfied.” On his and the team’s performance so far, he said, “I’m pretty sure everyone’s happy about their performances—I’m pretty happy about mine. I feel like it’s just getting started so just gotta wait ‘til what’s next.”

3x3 basketball teams clinch one win each

The men’s and women’s 3x3 teams finally saw some action and put their best foot forward as they clinched a win each.

The women’s team went up first and had a strong showing for their debut with a 16-6 win over the Federated States of Micronesia. However, in their game after, they fell to the Solomon Islands, 15-21.

Alliyah Fernandez, one player from the team said of their win over FSM, “the match today was really good—the first being the first game throughout the week, it’s a good icebreaker for us young girls and so winning the first game really good so it gives us momentum for the next games.

After that, the men’s team went up but lost to FSM, 21-14. However, in their second game, the men shook off all the jitters and played as one unit to clinch their first win, 21-19 over Samoa. Good passes and better gameplay than earlier in the afternoon was the gamechanger with Chioni Dela Cruz sinking in the clutch two-pointer with just seconds left to win the game.

Men’s indoor v-ball squad gets 1st win; women fall to Wallis & Futuna 

The men’s indoor volleyball squad had a better showing on Day 2 as they got their first win in the tournament over Kiribati, 25-13, 25-4, 25-15. In the morning, the women’s team fell to Wallis and Futuna, 19-25, 11-25, 13-25.

Va’a V6 men/mixed reach finals

The NMI National Va’a Team continues to make waves as the V6 500m open men crew took first place in their repechage against Palau and Guam with a time of 2:05.10 and made it to the finals where they placed sixth with a time of 2:03.79. 

The V6 500m open mixed team bagged fifth place out of six in their finals and clocked in at 2:15.71.

Jenisha Dubrall, steerswoman for the 500m mixed team said of their race, “We have not done this crew in practice before so we were really nervous. A lot of things happened today that put a lot of pressure on us, but despite that, the vibes are really good which I believe helped us do super good. We did the first heat, made a PR, and went to the finals and made a PR again so it was a really good race overall.”

As for the men’s team’s performance, she said, “Our men, they made it to the finals. They got first place in their repechage and they even beat their PR, and they did solid—they did super good.”

Story by Leigh Gases