With the end of the of individual matches during the 2nd day of the high octane tournament known only as the UAAP Season 77 Fencing Championship the third day welcomed with a great sight as the men of the participating universities once again took the piste not as individuals, but rather as a team which moved as one cohesive body embodying the virtue of the famous Three Musketeers motto “All for one, and one for all”.
Driven with passion: team epee
Starting of the day in a relatively comfortable position Season 77 fencing powerhouses UE and UST were able to secure their ticket to the semis without lifting their blades due to their first and second ranking courtesy of their first day fencer’s performance.
With the teams of UE and UST simply awaiting their respective opponent’s, the remaining universities, DLSU, FEU, ADMU and UP, gave it their best to meet the powerhouses in the semis.
Led by individual silver medallist Raymund Orozco along with individual sabre medallist Gian Rodriguez, Marco Gatpandan and Dan Rebuyas the DLSU’s team were able to deny their opponent FEU, composed of Ralph Allanigue, John Concepcion, Gino Lintag, and Scottie Serrano, 44-41, to clear their way to the semis to face off against UE. The run of the DLSU Green Fencers were however cut short by the UE squad composed of individual epee bronze medallist Nathaniel Perez, Clark De Guzman, Lee Ergina, and Marlow Osaya in a close and extremely tense match which ultimately ended 45-44 resulting in UE advancing to the finals at the expense of DLSU who went home ended their run bagging a bronze.
As for the other side of the quarterfinals bracket, which composed the schools of ADMU and UP, the latter, composed of Alexis Alfonso, Juan Concepcion, Bernardo Tamase,and Armstrong Tibay, were able to beat the former composed of Joao Celestino, Spencer Galit, Colin Tan, and Michael Tan, 45-39. The victory of the UP team however was also short lived as they too fell similar to DLSU against UST’s Bernardino Aribas and Noelito Jose who both respectively won the gold and a bronze from the individual epee along with Michael Duterte and Dennis Gascon, 45-40, which resulted in UST advancing to the finals to face fellow powerhouse UE.
While clearly having the upper hand in the final’s match due to the due to their individual epee gold, it seems that UST luck has run out as a resurgent UE hungry to avenge their day 1 quickly fought with such passion to defeat the España based fencers 45-37 to bring home the team’s gold and force the Golden Fencers to console themselves with the silver.
Recurring match-up: team sabre
The finals match-up between UE and UST yet again made an appearance in the afternoon regardless of UST not enjoying the position it had earlier in the morning. This however, did not stop the Golden Fencers composed of individual sabre bronze medallist Angelo Ramos along with Bonn Pascual, Mark Eschavez, and Matthew Damatay from defeating automatic semifinal entry UP composed of individual sabre gold medallist Juan Ferrer along with Miguel Flores, Justine Guevara and Kit Base, 45-37.
Sadly for UST however, their successful run to the finals did not merit them winning the gold as the UE squad composed of bronze medallist Nathaniel Perez (epee) and Bruce Ng (sabre) along with Michael Nicanor and Alvin Almonte were once again able to repeat the day’s earlier outcome as they once again force UST to settle for silver as they take home the gold with the score of 45-31
