DOMINANCE. The Blue Tankers seized their first title in the UAAP swimming tournament while the Lady Tankers finished first runner-up to powerhouse University of the Philippines. Photo by Max V. Austria.

THE ATENEO Tankers redeemed last year’s lackluster performance as they dominated the standings in the UAAP Season 75 Swimming Championships held in the Trace Aquatic Center in Los Baños, Laguna last September 27 to 30.

History was made when the Blue Tankers finally claimed their first ever title in the men’s tournament. The men’s team nabbed 11 gold medals, six silver medals and six bronze medals for a total of 365 points. Their archrivals, the De La Salle University (DLSU) Green Tankers, finished second with 348 points, while University of the Philippines (UP) placed third with 285 points.

The Lady Tankers, who captured their first title in Season 75, finished second in the women’s tournament with five golds, nine silver medals and six bronze medals for a total of 326 points. The UP Lady Tankers, however, blew out the standings and clinched the title with 568 points, resulting from their 16 gold medals, while La Salle received third place honors with 196 points.

Adding another historical feat for Ateneo was the high school team, which won its eighth straight championship in the boys’ tournament.

Blue Tankers

After coming up short of grabbing the title last season, the Blue Tankers went back to work and added more weapons to their arsenal, which came in the form of 2012 Palarong Pambansa Most Valuable Player Axel Ngui and National Team mainstay Gio Palencia.

With the guidance of veterans Islau Dapat, Sean Paul Tan and Team Captain Adel Barlisan, the two rookies were instrumental in achieving the team’s longtime goal: to finally stand atop the highest spot in the podium and bring home the gold.

Surprise medalists not only proved that the Ateneo swimming program sustained the high-level performances of the swimmers, but also improved their performances by leaps and bounds.

Sophomore Micco Pesueña stunned heavy favorite and teammate Tan for the 50m breaststroke gold. One more surprise was that the Blue Tankers managed to win the 4x200m freestyle relay. The 4x50m freestyle relay team even shattered a record as the Blue Tankers set a record time of 1 minute and 42.46 seconds.

After three days of intense competition, the Blue Tankers led archrival DLSU by 13 points. “Thirteen points is like one event—one mistake and it could just destroy all our chances,” said Program Director and Head Coach Archimedes Lim on how crucial the fourth day was.

One last push

The fourth day came and both teams battled it out in the pool. It was an intense back and forth match, with La Salle dominating the 200m butterfly with first and fifth place finishes that brought them up by five points heading into the last two events of the day.

The Blue Tankers had their back against the ropes in this situation, however, with four entries in the 50m freestyle and a powerhouse team in the 4x100m medley relay to fight for their championship finish.

Ngui delivered again and won gold in the 50m freestyle as David Santos, Benjo Ramos and Dapat finished fourth, sixth and seventh place, respectively. This gave the Blue Tankers a slim lead over La Salle, proving Lim’s statement that one small error could change it all. At the end of the day, all the 4x100m medley relay team had to do was to bring it home.

Their experience was put perfectly into words by breaststroker Anjo Querol, who said, “It feels fulfilling knowing that we have made history. Winning it all is definitely the perfect way to end this swimming career.”

Barlisan added, “It’s a testament to all the hard work that the team, along with the coaches and staff, put in to make it possible.”

The road to redemption wasn’t easy. The team took extraordinary measures to translate their championship dreams into reality. Rookie of the Year Awardee Ngui stated, “It was hard preparing for the UAAP. I had to sacrifice the food I like to eat, sacrifice my time for my friends and sacrifice my time for just relaxing.”

To add to the time and food they had to sacrifice, the whole team also agreed to have all their leg hair removed in order to reduce drag.

Lady Tankers

The story is a bit different for the Lady Tankers. UP was simply too much for them to handle—they finished first runner-up to UP for the fourth consecutive year. Ateneo, however, was not outclassed, but simply outnumbered.

UP fielded almost four swimmers for every event, thus increasing their chances of landing in the top eight and scoring points. Even if an Atenean placed first in an event, UP would most likely equal the gold medal effort by the Lady Tanker. “I think it’s because we were really outnumbered,” said Jasmine Ong. “There were a lot of events where we only had a couple of people while they had four [entries].”

“Yes, it was an expected finish for the Lady Tankers. We had a very slim chance of upsetting UP with their stacked lineup,” explained Lim. This insight reflected the fact that UP wasn’t exactly better; they just had more options and fallbacks.

A bright future

These Lady Tankers had a good run, proving once again that they still had a solid core of contributors in Ong, 2011 MVP Celina Gonzalez, 2011 Rookie of the Year Kim Uy, and standout rookie Kezia Sarmiento. Gonzalez hauled in five medals, two of which were gold. Uy clinched three medals, among which was one gold. Ong bagged three bronzes and a silver medal while Sarmiento attained one silver medal and two bronze medals.

“As it is, UP [has] too many swimmers for us to seriously challenge them in the team rankings. As I have said, though, we have a bright future in terms of individual success, be it in UAAP or in other national or international competitions,” added Lim when asked about the future of the Lady Tankers.

The women’s team has some of the country’s best swimmers, but what the team lacks is a good number of contributors to complement the top performances by Gonzalez, Uy, Ong and Sarmiento.

Losing only Team Captain Regine Yu to graduation, the core contributors of the Lady Tankers will still be suiting up for the team for Season 76. With their young but experienced lineup, the Lady Tankers can only go forward from here. In time, perhaps no team can stop them—not even UP.