The Fast Ateneo Swimming Team (FAST) resumed their quest for the crown on Friday, October 13 at the Rizal Memorial Swimming Complex in Manila. The second day of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 80 Swimming tournament saw the Blue and Lady tankers maintain their respective positions on top of the standings after several outstanding individual and team performances in both the Men’s and Women’s divisions, garnering 13 medals in total through five finals events.
After a stellar performance on the opening day, FAST Ateneo once again exhibited their aquatic prowess to continue to stay ahead of their opponents. The Blue Eagles more than doubled their tally to 234 points, far ahead of second place De La Salle University (DLSU) at 153. The Lady Eagles were able to balloon the tally to 219 points, followed closely by their rivals the University of the Philippines (UP) with 206.
Ateneo set the bar high from the very beginning with two-time Olympian Jessie Lacuna clocking in at (4:04.07) in the preliminary round of the men’s 400m freestyle to break the former UAAP record set by last year’s team captain Axel Ngui at (4:04.45) back in 2015. However, not content with just that, Lacuna ended up besting his preliminary time in the finals, cutting a little over two whole seconds (4:01.96).
Blue tanker team captain Aldo Batungbacal, together with veterans Paolo Mutuc and Giancarlo Silva, racked up more points for the team, lording over the entire podium in the 50m breastroke finals with only fractions of a second apart at (30.39), (30.46), and (30.83), respectively.
Showing why he is the two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP), Lacuna finished the 100m butterfly in just under a minute (59.96). Meanwhile, in the women’s division, rookie Chloe Daos showed killer determination after a neck-and-neck battle, clocking in at (1:09.64) for a valuable gold medal.
Midway through the day, the monsoon brought about strong rains and wild winds at the Rizal Swimming Sports Complex, threatening the continuation of the event after streaks of lightning were seen and one lane official’s tent was blown away to the warm-up pool.
The storm eventually weakened and tournament proceeded, however, the real storm that was FAST Ateneo had just begun. Both the men’s and women’s teams topped the podium in every event till the end.
In the men’s 200m backstroke, rookie Aki Cariño finished first at (2:13.39), just far enough as he was able to look back and rejoice as fellow teammates Brandon Sing and Jeric Santos filled the next two positions at (2:16.78) and (2:19.94) for Ateneo to take all three medals in the event.
An even more dominant performance was displayed in the women’s 200m backstroke with rookie Courtney Gray and veteran Ariana Herranz swimming completely isolated in the final stretch of the event, clocking in at (2:27.65) and (2:28.00). To complete the Blue and White sweep of the event, team captain Julia Balanag pushed behind the two to win the bronze with a time of (2:34.58).
Drei Buhain, Paolo Mutuc, Brandon Sing, and Jethro Chua composed quartet for the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. Ateneo was able to jump ahead the first half of the race, but the DLSU team rocketed to take the lead. Despite starting at a disadvantage, Chua, the team’s last swimmer in this race, spirited a comeback for the Blue Eagles to the victory at (3:41.08), displaying the exact same heroics from a year ago.
On the other hand, the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay had a different story. The combination of Hannah Castañeda, Hannah Dato, Shayn Ting, and Andrea Ngui saw the Lady tankers lead the whole race, and were even able to pull away towards the end as Ngui tapped the wall to give the team the gold at (4:14.58).
The Blue and Lady Eagles will attempt to unleash another cannonade aquatic dispatch in the pool on Saturday, October 14 at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.
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