THE ATENEO Men’s and Women’s Judo teams took to the mats in Day 1 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 81 Judo Tournament on Saturday, December 8 at the De La Salle University (DLSU) Enrique M. Razon Sports Complex in Manila.

The Blue Eagles snagged three bronze medals and one gold medal in a run to defend the championship, while the rookie-laden Lady Eagles ended medal-less after the opening day of the two-day event.

Blue Eagles

In the men’s tournament, six Blue Eagles came down to the mats, with two players competing per weight division in three out of four division in the seniors’ competition.

Representing the Blue and White in the -81kg division were Hermogenes Arayata IV and rookie Bernie Margulies, while Allen San Juan and Miguel Sadorra fought in the -90kg category. Jophrey Ang competed in the -100kg division alongside Team Captain Rafael Cadiente, who lowered his weight class leaving no Blue Eagle to compete in the +100kg category.

In the -81kg division, Arayata went toe-to-toe with Steven Austra from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), with the latter taking the match after a quick ippon, a full point that ends the match when claimed.

The veteran, however, was able to atone for his early shortcoming in a repechage, or a loser’s bracket match-up, against Rhyan Garay from the University of the Philippines (UP). Arayata won the chance to snag bronze after taking Garay down with an ippon around halfway in the match.

Arayata was then pit against UP’s Ephraim Guzman in a fight for bronze, coming up with a powerful takedown and an ippon to win Ateneo the bronze.

Starting strong in his first collegiate battle, meanwhile, Margulies took down UST’s Luis San Diego after pinning him to the ground in the quarter-finals. Keeping the momentum, the youngblood outclassed UP’s Ephraim Guzman to make it to the Finals after pulling off an instant takedown ippon in just six seconds of play.

The -81kg finals had Blue Eagle Margulies clash with DLSU’s Franco Maloles for the gold. In just 23 seconds, Margulies was awarded the ippon after pinning down Malalos to win Ateneo’s first gold medal of the tournament.

In the -90kg division, Sadorra came out to a slow start as he quickly fell through an ippon by UP’s Leon Avendado. However, redemption came for last year’s -100kg representative in the ensuing bronze medal match, as Sadorra shared the mat with DLSU’s Franco Maloles. The blue judoka used his experience to claim the ippon with a takedown of Maloles to win a bronze medal.

Sadorra was joined by Allen San Juan, who opened the day with a tightly contested loss to UST’s Allen Salcedo that required a sudden death point (called the golden score) to win. Eager to redeem his opening loss, he came up short in the bronze medal match to UST’s Randolph Dalupiri via a takedown that was scored an ippon.

In the -100kg division, Cadiente overwhelmed UP’s Michael Lagmay in the quarter-finals, claiming ippon through takedown. However, his next bout against DLSU’s Keith Reyes was not so clean cut as the match saw both judokas scuffling for a lead the entire match. Reyes took the win after drawing the match to the extended golden score. With fellow Blue Eagle Ang falling to UP’s Yiu Lee after the latter claimed the ippon, Ang would need to fight another match to win a bronze.

The bronze medal match of the -100kg division featured the two blue judokas going against each other. Being much taller than his Atenean counterpart, Cadiente used his length to his advantage by always keeping Ang at arms length. This advantage proved to be too much for Ang, as Cadiente earned the bronze medal.

Lady Eagles

The Lady Eagles deployed three judokas for the first tournament day, with Mei Uy and Laura Frayna competing in the -57kg division, while Ashley Uy represented the Blue and White in the -52kg division.

In the -57kg division, Frayna started the tournament with the first match of the day against UST’s Almira Ruiz. However, she was unable to start strong for the lady judokas as Ruiz claimed the ippon. Frayna then bowed out of the tournament after her repechage defeat to UP’s Marq Padilla. Frayna’s overagressiveness got the best of her as she fell partially on her back twice early in the match, handing the ippon to Padilla.

Ateneo’s second -57kg representative, Mei Uy, started out strong in her return to the UAAP. She grinded her way through a first match victory against UST’s Devrah Devaras. Aiming make the most out of her last UAAP tourney, she needed to win her next match against DLSU’s Charmea Quelino to book a spot in the gold medal match. However, Mei Uy came up short as Quelino scored an ippon, leaving the Lady Eagle to fight in the bronze medal match.

In the sole medal match for the lady judokas, Mei Uy showed great resilience, but it wasn’t enough as she fell to UP’s Marg Padilla. The Fighting Maroon was able to partially take down Mei Uy in the early stages of the match, forcing the veteran to play catch-up the rest of the way. The Lady Eagle, from that point, became more aggressive, as she was going up against the time limit. However, in a frantic last ditch effort, she was caught off-guard by Padilla, who scored the last-second ippon off a takedown.

The sole representative for the Blue and White for the -52kg division, Ashley Uy, came to challenge UST’s Rhodesa Bayas in the quarter-finals where the latter won the match with a well timed ippon. Ashley Uy’s matches continued to be shaky as she later fell to Kim Batalla from the University of the East (UE), dropping her chance of bagging bronze.

After the first day of the two-day tournament, Blue Eagles Team Captain Cadiente shared what he thought about their performance. Being in his final UAAP playing year, he couldn’t deny that he was personally aiming higher than his bronze medal finish. However, he felt proud with how the whole team performed. He singled out sole gold medalist Bernie Margulies for his splendid performance, saying, “I’m proud of [Bernie]. He came out prepared and focused.”

In terms of points, he admitted that they still had a hill to climb on the second day in order to defend their championship. His advice for his teammates yet to compete in the second day is simple: play to win and don’t be afraid to lose.

The second day of the UAAP Judo Tournament will be held tomorrow, December 9, at the same venue.