The School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA) swam all-out in women’s swimming competition, bagging all gold medals in eight individual categories.

First-time palaro participant Maria Aquina Vecina dove off with ease in the first half of the categories and ended the meet by tapping off the pool wall with a total of eight gold medals in both 50-meter and 25-meter butterfly, backstroke, freestyle, and breaststroke.

“I didn’t really expect to win all events sa women’s category. My mindset lang nung nag tryout pa lang nung August ata or September was just to swim out there and have fun since the water has been my home for as long [as] I have been living,” Vecina told Atenews. 

Despite time constraints on practices, Vecina plunged in a deep impression among the crowd as the swimmer sprinted through the pool alone in long course butterfly and backstroke.

“Nung palapit na yung palaro date for swimming, I could say meron mga challenges na I encountered such as finding time to fit in a swim practice or finding time to go the gym because of the load ng acads.”

For Vecina, every lap finished is a liberating feeling that validates the difficult process and recognizes that amidst the inconsistencies of practices, she can still swim. 

“The joy of touching the wall [at] every event is very liberating for me. Not in a sense na kase it’s done na but in a sense na it feels fulfilling na binuhos mo talaga lahat ng kinaya mo despite the hurdles that were present nung process.”

The SEA Tigers also swept the group events, placing first in the 4 x 25 M medley relay and freestyle relay, t-shirt relay, and ping pong ball relay. 

The women’s swimming competition was held at Ateneo de Davao University Junior High last October 8, 2023.