CONTRIBUTING to the University’s general championship bid prevailed to be the motivation behind the UST Fencers win.
UST ended the UAAP Season 79 fencing tournament with three golds, three silvers and three bronzes as the University of the East (UE) won its 10th title in a row in the women’s division and fifth straight in the men’s division at the Quadricentennial Pavilion from Feb. 8 to 11.
The Male Fencers settled for second place anew with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals, while the women’s squad slid one place lower from their second-place finish last year with a gold, silver and bronze.
Male Fencers team captain Noelito Jose nabbed gold in the men’s individual epee before anchoring the men’s epee team comprised of Jose Bernardino Arribas, Michael Duterte and Dennis Gascon in a nail-biting 45-44 comeback win over UE in the championship game.
Female Fencers team captain Maylene Pailma duplicated her gold medal-finish from last year over rival Allein Cortey of UE.
But Pailma could not bring her success in the women’s sabre team event as she and teammates Janna Dalmacio, Cherie Mañago and Fhaym Sarrondo yielded to the Lady Warriors in the title match.
Pailma, who has already exhausted her UAAP playing years, originally wanted to forego this season in preparation for next year but had a change of heart to give the University more leverage in the general championship race.
“Since we knew the competition will be held in UST, my coach and I decided that I will be competing because if I do not, we will fall to fifth place and I cannot let that happen to our team,” Pailma told the Varsitarian.
Angelo Ramos bagged silver in men’s individual sabre and contributed in the Male Fencers’ silver-medal finish in the team category alongside Matthew Domantay, Mark Joseph Echaves and Bonn Pascual.
Dennis Gascon secured a bronze in the men’s individual epee,w while UST’s women’s epee and men’s foil team both chipped in another pair of bronze medals.
“We just did our part in retaining the gold for the individual and team epee events to meet our goals of finishing at the podium,” Jose said.
UST’s junior squads failed to win a gold in the four-day tourney but clinched five silver and eight bronze medals.
With the loss of Pailma and Dino Arribas, the Fencers will try to bank in on Jose and their young core in hopes of ending the Warriors’ reign next season.
