{"id":412056,"date":"2024-08-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=412056"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Tsunami-Saipan-fetes-Isaiah-Kean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Tsunami-Saipan-fetes-Isaiah-Kean\/","title":{"rendered":"Tsunami Saipan fetes Isaiah, Kean"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center held a farewell dinner for college-bound members Isaiah Aleksenko and Kean Pajarillaga last Aug. 11 at Kinpachi Restaurant in Garapan.<\/p>\n

Head coach Hiroyuki Kimura said while Aleksenko and Pajarillaga will be going off-island for college, it\u2019s not entirely goodbye as the duo will continue their swimming careers at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any comments for Isaiah and Kean now. Correctly, I don\u2019t want to say anything about them because they\u2019ll keep swimming competitively in college. It means there may be a reunion in the near future such as the Pacific Mini Games, etc.\u201d he told Saipan Tribune<\/em>. There are many great coaches in the U.S. mainland. Isaiah and Kean will get excellent coaching and learn a lot to improve their swim level. I want them to practice hard in college while training and achieve great results in college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aleksenko is expected to fly to the U.S. mainland on Aug. 26, while Pajarillaga will be leaving today, Aug. 19.<\/p>\n

Aleksenko and Pajarillaga thanked Tsunami Saipan not only for the farewell dinner, but also for shaping them to the swimmers and persons they\u2019ve turned out to be. They also thanked family and loved ones for their successes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank all my teammates for all they\u2019ve done for me and for being a second family. I would also like to thank my family, my friends, and most importantly my mom because without her I wouldn\u2019t be able to do this and accomplish my goals. I would also like to thank my coach [Hiro] and Miss Yuko [Kimura]. Coach and Miss Yuko are like a second mom and dad to me and I\u2019ve known them my whole life, basically. I really love my coach and Miss Yuko. My coach taught me everything I know and without him I don\u2019t know what I would be doing because I know my talent is swimming and I\u2019m thankful I was gifted such a great coach. I would also like to thank my girlfriend because she motivated me whenever I would go off-island. She\u2019s the best girlfriend I could have asked for and I love her so much,\u201d said Aleksenko.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt it has truly been an honor to be a part of this team for so long. I want to thank them all for all the great experiences and memories we all had together and for helping me achieve this position that I am in now. I am looking forward to swimming in my college and meeting the new swimmers that are there. Also, I am looking forward to making new friends,\u201d said Pajallaga.<\/p>\n

Aside from Aleksenko and Pajarillaga, three Tsunami Saipan graduates also left the island recently as Michelle Chen, Julia Jinang, and Andrew Nunez left for college in the U.S. mainland, according to Kimura.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three have contributed greatly to Tsunami Saipan. Without them, Tsunami Saipan would not be the strong team it is today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pajarillaga will major in Chemistry at Macalester College, while Aleksenko will be taking up engineering.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center\u2019s members Isaiah Aleksenko and Kean Pajarillaga, center, show off their mementos after being feted during a farewell dinner last Aug. 11 at Kinpachi Restaurant in Garapan.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Isaiah Aleksenko and Kean Pajarillaga pose with Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center coach Hiroyuki Kimura and his wife Yuko, who is also the club\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Isaiah Aleksenko and his mom Yulia.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Kean Pajarillaga and his mom Susan.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center held a farewell dinner for college-bound members Isaiah Aleksenko and Kean…<\/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-412056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412056","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=412056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}