THERE IS no place like home.
Despite offers from other universities, Skyler Claveria, a UAAP juniors swimming standout, decided to stay in UST and join the senior’s team.
“I have already established a family here [in UST]. Besides, the course I want to take up is offered UST which is Travel Management,” Claveria told the Varsitarian.
Claveria said that he opted to remain a Thomasian because of the quality of education the University is known for and affirmed that it was his personal decision to stay.
During the buildup for Season 77, Claveria explained that he did not expect to perform well this year after suffering an accident two months before the competition.
The former juniors’ Rookie of the Year accidentally hit a broken tile during their training, resulting in a cut to one of his toes that needed stitches.
After that, he thought that his improvement was very slow, evinced by his failure to clock better times in training, which caused him to be less enthusiastic.
However, the graduating team captain of the Junior Tigersharks amassed a total of six gold medals during the UAAP Season 77 swimming competition while breaking two UAAP records, the 50 and 100-meter breaststroke, as he led UST to a second-place finish behind powerhouse Ateneo de Manila University.
Despite his impressive performance, the Palarong Pambansa multi-gold medalist vented his frustrations of not fulfilling his goals of winning the Most Valuable Player award, sweeping his seven events and winning a title for UST.
Claveria technically topped all his seven events but was disqualified in the 100-meter butterfly, losing the gold medal, as officials noticed a wrong kick during the race.
Due to the disqualification, the 16-year-old swimmer had to surrender his bid for the MVP trophy as Ateneo standout Miguel Antonio Arellano registered 100 points compared to his 90.
With a decorated high school career now under his belt, Claveria credited his older brother Kevin, also a Tigershark, who served as his personal coach.
“Sabi niya, mag-training ako ng mabuti para sabay kami ma-offer-an ng schools at manalo sa mga laban,” he recalled.
Entering the senior ranks, the Olympian hopeful vowed to train harder to help reinforce the Male Tigersharks.
“I don’t want to assure the school any awards but I will try my best to perform even better and take home, hopefully, the Rookie of the Year award,” he told. Karl Cedrick G. Basco
