After performing various swimming strokes, the School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA) Tigers topped most categories during the Swimming Championship Tournament with the Social Sciences (SS) Draggons and Computer Studies (CS) Chamelons splashing behind.

The Tigers prevailed in the top ranks with four 1st places out of 20 categories, namely: 50-meter Butterfly, 50-meter Backstroke, 50-meter Freestyle, and 25-meter Backstroke.

SEA’s Balagot and Albano created an intense start in the 50-meter butterfly by immediately taking the lead, where they ranked 1st and 2nd, respectively, while CS’ Barsomo placed 3rd place.

During the 50m breaststroke, SS’ Rafael Lim created an impressive lead, outswimming John Marion Albano and Renzo Ethan Tiu, who placed 2nd and 3rd simultaneously for the said category.

In the 50-meter Freestyle and backstroke, Balagot reclaimed 1st place, outswimming SS’ Rasonabe in backstroke, and Albano, who placed 2nd place during the freestyle competition.

Eventually, Lim reclaimed the first place during the 50-meter breaststroke and 25-meter butterfly, besting the other swimmers for the said categories, including the Tigers’ Albano and Balagot.

Heightened by the audiences’ cheers for their cluster, Balagot, Lim, and Rasonabe were in a close match during the 25-meter Backstroke, resulting in Balagot’s 1st place, Lim’s 2nd place, and Rasonabe’s 3rd place in the said category. 

The last individual category for the male swimmers was the 25-meter Freestyle, where CS Chameleon’s swimmer Barsomo was able to bag 1st place, followed by School of Nursing’s Pantaleon in 2nd place and SEA’s Lucero in 3rd place.

SEA’s Lucero, Albano, Vecina, Bansag, and Balagot bagged all the first places during the group and mixed categories, namely the 25-meter medley relay, freestyle relay, t-shirt relay, and ping-pong relay.

When asked what advice they can give other student-athletes who want to win in their respective sports events, Balagot said, “Stay dedicated and train consistently. Mental resilience is key, so embrace challenges and persevere through difficulties.” 

Another top swimmer Albano told Atenews that the best advice he can give was to “never doubt your capabilities.”

“There is so much untapped potential within each one of us when we stop doubting ourselves. You’ve done the training; now’s the time to do your best regardless of what the results would be. Yes, it would be fulfilling to win in your respective events, but please know that losing would also open up another chance for you to learn and do better as athletes,” he said.

The event was held at Ateneo de Davao – Junior High School, Matina on October 8.