ATENEO FAST opened their campaign in search of the three-peat with a medal blowout on the first day of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 79 swimming tournament, claiming the top spot in both the men’s and women’s divisions at the end of the first day’s events. The Blue Eagles climbed to first place with 132 points ahead of De La Salle University (DLSU), who trail with 67, while the Lady Eagles splashed into the spotlight to take the lead, knocking in 113 points to take first place ahead of the University of the Philippines (UP) with 74.
The Blue and Lady Eagles hauled in a total of 16 medals, with the men tallying nine and the women racking in seven across five events for a combined team score of 245 points to tighten FAST’s hold over the college title.
Aldo Batungbacal and Eman Dapat took first and second place in the men’s 800m freestyle, clocking in at 8:46.68 and 8:57.98, respectively, while Romina Gavino snagged the gold in the women’s 800m freestyle with a time of 9:44.89. Rookie Jethro Chua made his UAAP debut with a climactic golden finish in the men’s 100m freestyle, stealing first place in the event at 52.86s, a mere hundredth of a second ahead of tankers captain Axel Ngui who settled for the silver. Andrea Ngui made an equally significant splash into the collegiate pool, topping the the women’s 100m freestyle 1:00.49, while junior Ariana Herranz followed at 1:01.85 for the bronze.
The tankers made waves in the 200m individual medley as well, dominating the podium in both divisions to pull ahead in team points.Reigning Most Valuable Player Jessie Lacuna grabbed the gold with a time of 2:09.04, while teammates Aldo Batungbacal and Eman Dapat added to their own medal tallies, trailing the national swimmer at second and third place. Lady Eagles captain Hannah Dato and Herranz stole the show in the women’s IM to take the gold and the silver with times of 2:27.06 and 2:32.39, respectively.
The squad fell short of the gold in the 800m freestyle relay, however, as both the Blue and Lady Eagles fell to UP in the day’s concluding event. Brandon Sing, Justin Sy, Eman Dapat, and Getty Reyes finished in second in the relay with a time of 8:16.83, while Julia Balanag, Ramona Datu, Ariana Herranz, and Dominiq Reyes clocked in at 9:33.01.
Despite this, FAST ended the day on a positive note, managing to break their own record in the 4×50 medley relay. Veteran swimmers Ngui, Lacuna, Jeric Santos, and Giancarlo Silva struck gold with a new league best of 1:46.91, unseating the previous record of 1:49.66 set by Santos, Silva, Gio Palencia, and Paolo Mutuc in the previous year. Opposite the men, Shayn Ting, Shaye Uy, Kristine Santos, and Ramona Datu placed second in the women’s medley relay, clocking in at 2:10.27 to take the silver.
