Unexpected finish. Blue Tankers exceed expectations with a podium finish in the UAAP Season 74 Swimming Competition. Photo by Christella D. Soriano

THEY SAY that adversity either brings out the best or the worst in us. In the case of the young and undermanned Ateneo Tankers, they delivered in the time of need, with both the men’s and women’s teams duplicating last season’s performance.

Blue Tankers

They may have not won the title, but they won a well-deserved battle for third. Their finish was ambiguous, team captain Adel Barlisan was surprised himself.

“After the first day we found out we were running third, leading UP by a small margin. We realized na kaya naman eh. With this in mind we didn’t want to let this slim margin slip,” he said.

They eventually held on to that lead to claim a 3rd place finish—what initially seemed like a tall order turned out to be quite an exciting finish.

With the graduation of their MVP and other top guns, the blue tankers were hardly considered as contenders entering the competition. The team was undermanned and was lacking in experience, which made some people count them out of a podium finish.

“Only 12 people were fielded in the UAAP lineup whereas other teams had 20. This year, our team is relatively young and new and clearly, we were the underdogs,” said junior Anjo Querol.

But they certainly proved their doubters wrong. Leading UP by a mere 12 points heading into day four of the competition, the tankers were not that confident because the events were up for grabs, it could have been anyone’s gain.

UP was slowly trying to mount a comeback with top eight finishes in the 200m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, and the 50m backstroke.

The tankers relied on their quality swims led by their sophomore superstar Islau Dapat, who won one bronze, one silver, and one gold medal on the last day of competition.

Lawin Dacera captured the team’s first and only individual gold medal in the 1500m freestyle. Other medalists for the day were Micco Pesuena and Barlisan.

The final event was the 4×100 medley relay. Team captain Barlisan knew it would come down to this deciding race to capture a podium finish.

The relay was the highlight of the day, as from then, the tankers were no longer short in confidence.

They knew they had UP on the ropes, which made the relay crucial for both teams. Dapat, the hero of the day, led the charge with his backstroke leg and gave quite a lead for Pesuena, who would do the breastroke leg of the relay. Barlisan followed it up in the butterfly and anchoring the finish was Benjo Ramos.

Though lacking in experience, the willpower to fight is one that is not attained through experience. The Blue Tankers delivered on pure heart. After all at the end, it all comes down to who wants it more—and the blue tankers wanted it more.

Lady Tankers

“Second place is always a learning experience” says UAAP Swimming season 74’s MVP Celina Gonzalez.

It has been more than three years since the Lady Tankers finished a season as champions. Although the odds did not seem to be in their favor this year—especially with the loss of last season’s MVP to academic reasons—the ladies went into battle undaunted.

With heads held up high, the Lady Tankers marched on to their battlegrounds last September 22, 2011 at the Trace Aquatic Center in Los Baños, Laguna. Armed with their unwavering fighting spirits, the ladies fought and swam their way to the end. Finishing in 2nd place overall, they fell short to Katipunan rivals, University of the Philippines.

The Lady Tankers started out strong, as they ended day one of their season bagging three gold and two bronze medals, topped off with a newly set record for the 800m freestyle relay event. Former Rookie of the Year Jasmine Ong finished 1st while teammate Roanne Yu finished 3rd in the 100m freestyle event.

Sophomore Gonzalez received what would be her first of five gold medals on the same day, defeating opponents in the 200m Individual Medley event.

Tankers Angelica Enrile-Inton, Mia Crespo, Jackie Cruz and Yu also delivered commendable performances on the first day as they broke the record for the aforementioned 800m freestyle relay event. The ladies broke the record by finishing 4.60 seconds ahead of time. The record was previously established by former Lady Tankers Tan, Ong, Decena, and Zabelita back in 2008.

On the fourth and last day of competition, Lady Tanker Ong pleased the crowd when she broke her own record from the previous season in the 50m freestyle event. Not far behind was teammate Yu, who finished in 3rd place. Ong would later end the season with two gold and two silver medals.

The Lady Tankers overwhelmingly swept the individual categories for senior women’s. Sophomore, Gonzalez was named MVP of the season, after capping it off with five gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal.

“It feels awesome! It’s such a relief that all the hard work I went through paid off”, Gonzalez said after receiving the honor of the much coveted title.

Not to be forgotten is the outstanding performance delivered by Rookie of the Year, Uy, who finished with two gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal on her first year. Uy even went as far as breaking the 2005 established record in the 400m freestyle event, beating it by .74 seconds.

“It was really unexpected, I just did my best,” said Uy about her new title.

Another season may have ended, but the lessons learned from it will continue for a long time.

“I learned the importance of having team spirit. Cheering for teammates is a big part of the whole UAAP experience” said Ong.

Without the presence of the Blue Babble Battalion, the Blue and Lady Tankers did not stop from cheering for each other, showing heart both in and out of the swimming pool.