A slip to fifth. The Blue and Lady Fencers look to learn from their losses this season and develop a stronger team for next year. / Photo by Aih Mendoza
BACK IN the days of the Roman Empire, Romans reveled at the spectacle of warriors lunging and thrusting blades in hopes of ending their opponent’s life. The sound of steel striking steel, iron hitting iron filled the Roman Coliseum as gladiators engaged in armed combat.
Although the intent of putting an end to the opponent’s life is no longer there, the same competitive atmosphere that gladiatorial events were famous for pumped up the UAAP Season 74 fencing championships last December 2 to 5 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
The event would once again be a six-team affair. Among the competitors were the Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, Far Eastern University, University of the East, University of the Philippines and event host University of Santo Tomas.
Last season, the Ateneo Blue and Lady Fencers fought strong campaigns, with both teams garnering top ranks: the men’s team finishing second and the women’s team securing third in their respective divisions.
However, the loss of last year’s men’s MVP Bryant Cabantac and veterans Scott Siy, Mikki Reyes and Stephanie Payayo to graduation made duplicating last season’s success a tall order.
While both the Blue and Lady Fencers could only manage a paltry fifth place finish, UST emerged as champions in the men’s division with three gold medals and two bronze medals, followed by FEU and UP, which finished second and third respectively.
For the Lady Fencers, UE successfully defended their crown and secured their fifth straight championship. La Salle and FEU rounded up the top three in the women’s division.
Team Ateneo fielded a relatively inexperienced team. “I personally didn’t set expectations this year, because it [was] the first time we didn’t have that kind of veteran support,” confessed Captain Dani Olivan.
Coming into the competition, Olivan and co-captain Glenda Yano said that their strategy would be to win the men’s epee and women’s foil competitions as the key to producing medals for the Blue and White. Unfortunately, the goal did not materialize.
The first collegiate event for Team Ateneo took place on day two, with the women’s individual sabre event held in the morning. The team event took place in the afternoon.
The Lady Fencers fielded Nicoleth De Castro and Anna Tapel in the individual event. Nicole Bilog and Jeanine Leuterio joined the duo in the team event.
In the individual event, De Castro made it as far as the quarterfinals; however, the Lady Fencers came away empty handed at the end of the day.
With the men’s sabre and epee events along with the women’s sabre event scheduled to happen, the penultimate day of the competition was the busiest—and the most successful—one for the Katipunan-based squad.
Kimberly Licup secured Ateneo’s first medal when she won bronze in women’s individual foil. Olivan, Joao Celestino, Robin Canete and Kelvin Ingente added to that later in the afternoon, winning bronze in the men’s team epee event. The women’s foil team then seized what would be the Blue and Lady Fencers’ final medal this season, when Licup, along with Yano, Ara Simon and Joi Frederico, also won the bronze.
The men’s foil team, which won gold a year ago, and was bannered by returning players Shaun Yap, Jaime Ignacio and Patrick Pecson, fell short of their bid to repeat last year’s feat.
The final day saw the men’s foil and women’s epee events conclude this year’s UAAP Fencing Championships. The Blue and Lady Fencers were hoping to end the season on a high note, similar to last year, but it just wasn’t in the cards for them.
It was a disappointing season for the Blue and Lady Fencers, but some of their struggles were brought about by factors outside of their hands. A turbulent training schedule brought about by some of the coaches’ participation in the recently concluded 26th Southeast Asian games was one of them.
The team was also plagued by the youth and inexperience in the roster, which featured athletes who had only taken up the sport in college, as compared to the other participating schools, which fielded athletes who’ve been wielding their fencing weapons as early as high school.
The silver lining in this year’s UAAP fencing championship, though, was the performance of the junior’s team. The high school squad serves as a pool of athletes who could possibly don the Blue and White for the Blue Fencers at the college level. The junior team finished third in the boy’s division, behind champions UE and first runner-up UST, while securing one gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the process.
In addition to the junior team’s success, the fact that most of the lineup will be back next year puts the Ateneo fencing contingent in a good spot for the future. The team’s young core will seek to build on this season and continue to develop in order to take the big leap next year.
