Other schools he considered before narrowing it down to Keiser University were Miami University and Utah University.<\/p>\n
Aleksensko admitted that he won\u2019t be going to Keiser University on a full-ride scholarship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt unfortunately wasn\u2019t a full-ride scholarship because my grades in high school were bad and honestly, I didn\u2019t even make the GPA to get in that school, but they still took me in with large amounts of scholarships. I know that in my second year, I would definitely get a full scholarship because I compared my time to theirs and my time is the fastest time out of their butterfly times,\u201d said the Saipan Community School alumnus.<\/p>\n
Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center head coach Hiroyuki Kimura said he couldn\u2019t be happier that\u00a0Aleksensko will continue to pursue swimming in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cried tears of happiness when I heard that Isaiah had gotten a swimming scholarship and was going to university. The reason for my tears is that I have been watching Saipan\u2019s swimming scene for over 20 years and I have never known a swimmer who practiced as much as Isaiah and worked as hard as Isaiah. There is no reason why a young man who has worked hardest cannot have a bright future. He embodied it perfectly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kimura and his wife, Yuko who is Tsunami Saipan\u2019s manager, said they\u2019ve essentially treated Aleksenko like their own son.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and my wife Yuko have raised Isaiah with lots of love. That\u2019s why we scolded him so much that it made him tremble and we loved him so much. For 13 years, we\u2019ve been raising him as his second parents (though I don\u2019t know how he feels about it).\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimura believes his ward will be able to develop his full potential as he will get to train in better facilities\u2014the very least a 50m swimming pool\u2014and access to better coaching in college in the U.S. mainland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard that the Keiser swim team has a great coach. They also have a great practice environment with a 50m long course pool. Florida is also warm throughout the year and I think it\u2019s a very suitable environment for Saipan kids. I believe Isaiah\u2019s goal is to compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials\/U.S. National Championships. Dream big! Joining Team USA!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Keiser University men\u2019s and women\u2019s swimming and diving head coach Adam Epstein believes they might have unearthed a diamond in the rough in Aleksenko, who won two bronze medals in the recent the 47th Junior Olympic Cup in Japan and a gold medal in the 200m butterfly and was part of the bronze medal-winning 4x100m individual medley and 4x100m relay team in last year\u2019s Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsaiah is a hidden gem of a talent and he has the skill set to help us compete for a team national title. Isaiah has extremely strong underwaters when he swims the butterfly. Due to lack of facilities, we believe that he can improve significantly with his starts and the details of our sport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Epstein added that other than a 50-meter pool helping him train for his international goals, Isaiah will have other world-class athletes to train with while getting a great education at Keiser University.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sky is the limit for Isaiah as he continues to grow and mature into his body. There is a massive emphasis in strength at the collegiate level that will help Isaiah continue to progress in his career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aleksenko seems deadest in etching his name in CNMI sports lore as he prepares for the next chapter of his swimming journey in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t ever forget about Saipan and I\u2019ll make sure to make Saipan known once I become famous!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Isaiah\u00a0Aleksensko poses with Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center head coach Hiroyuki Kimura, right, and Tsunami Saipan manager Yuko Kimura after a recent training session.<\/p>\n -CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Isaiah Aleksensko will continue his swimming exploits at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Dubbed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/2800e09bbd1676686ea7c5e1da3151c3.jpg\")
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