THE ATENEO Blue and Lady Eagles finished their University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) season 79 with seven medals overall on Sunday, November 20 at the De La Salle Zobel gymnasium in Muntinlupa.

Although they weren’t able to reclaim their championship title from last season, the Blue Eagles were able to land in second place on the podium, while the Lady Eagles mustered up impressive performances as well.

Blue Eagles

The Blue Eagles competed in the lightweight events on day two. Blue judokas’ gold-bet Ralph Sapi had a difficult set of matches, but after losing to Michael Borja from De La Salle University (DLSU), Sapi settled for the silver in his -73kg division. His silver was followed by Eric Uy, who won a bronze medal in the match against Jeric Cabero from DLSU in the same division (-73kg).

Jab De Jesus also won a bronze from his match with Benj Bolongaita from DLSU in the -60kg division. De Jesus almost made it to the final match, unfortunatley, he fell to DLSU’s Adrian Perillo in the semi-final round.

However, the big winner for the Blue and White was Nico Clemente who took home the gold in the -66kg division. After skillfully taking down Nathaniel Morales from University of the East, the Season 78 Rookie of the Year reclaimed the gold he won from the last season. “My matches [were not] that easy to be honest. I struggled, but if you put in the work it is [definitely] possible,” said Clemente.

Lady Eagles

The Lady Eagles also had an eventful day two, where they competed in the heavyweight events. After suffering a medal drought on the first day of the competition, the Lady Eagles came up big on the second day with three medals. Mei Uy earned the first bronze in the -70kg division after the match against Ma. Flores from University of the Philippines, where Uy quickly took down her opponent. The next victory came from Rhea Chong who also won her bronze match against Maroon opponent Bianca Paloma in the -78kg division. However it was in the +78kg division, where the Lady Eagles’ champion came out; Seanne Chung defeated Castilo from University of Santo Tomas (UST) and took home the gold for the Blue and White.

At the end of the tourney, the men’s team gave way to the new champions, UST, who dominated both the men’s and women’s divisions. Graduating Ateneo Captain Martel Agustin proudly exclaimed: “As it is [we’re] already there. We just need to keep pushing.”