In the longest match day of the 80th UAAP Swimming Championships, the defending champions Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles continued to pile up the medals by ruling all five individual events, and adding three silver and bronze medals each.
De La Salle University managed to nab the gold medal in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay as Red Silvestre, Skyler Claveria, Miguel Narciso, and Alfonso Bautista registered a time of 1:38.05 ahead of Ateneo (1:39.83) and NU.
However, the Blue Eagles were in a class of their own as Aldo Batungbacal (1:05.56), Paolo Mutuc (1:06.71), and Carlo Silva (1:07.23) repeated their 50m Breaststroke performance in Day 2 with another 1-2-3 finish in the 100m Breaststroke. Batungbacal also shattered his old 1:05.78 UAAP mark established last year.
Ateneo’s two-time MVP Jessie Lacuna continued his spectacular swim by winning gold in the 200m Freestyle (1:55.81), 50m Butterfly (25.69) and 400m Individual Medley (4:38.82), hiking his total to six gold medals with one last event to swim. He leads Batungbacal in the MVP race by 21 points. Incidentally, Lacuna also relegated Batungbacal to a silver medal finish in the 400m Individual Medley (4:39.21).
The fifth gold medal of Ateneo came from rookie sensation Akiva Cariño, who conquered the 100m Backstroke in 1:01.32, edging out DLSU’s Neil Puyo (1:01.59) and Ateneo’s Brandon Sing (1:02.08).
Other medalists for the day include silver medalists from DLSU, Fahad Alkhaldi (200m Freestyle – 1:57.18) and Silvestre (50m Butterfly – 26.23), and bronze medalists Miguel Barlisan of Ateneo (200m Freestyle – 1:58.36), Andrae Pogiongko of UP (50m Butterfly – 26.42) and Alnair Guevarra of DLSU (400m Individual Medley – 4:54.66).
In the Rookie of the Year race, Barlisan and Pogiongko are tied with 36 points, but Barlisan wins the tiebreak by virtue of his individual gold medal in the 100m Freestyle. Cariño, who already has two individual gold medals (100m Backstroke and 200m Backstroke), is in third place with 30 points.
UAAP Season 80 Men’s Swimming tally after Day 3
ADMU – 402
DLSU – 235
UP – 144
UST – 59
NU – 38
UE – 17
ADU – 14
On Deck
50m Backstroke
200m Breaststroke
200m Butterfly
50m Freestyle
1500m Freestyle
4x100m Medley Relay
The final day of action resumes at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex Swimming Pool at 3:30 in the afternoon of October 15, 2017.
