A year ago the two teams suffered the same fate, finishing last in both divisions, and yet a year removed from their dismal performances, the DLSU Green and Lady Fencers churned out stints that was as opposite as black and white.
The Lady Fencers went from being the bottom-feeder at the end of last year’s UAAP Fencing Tournament to being the bridesmaids, while the Green Fencers duplicated last season’s sixth place finish in this season’s edition of the tournament which was held from Dec. 9-11 last year at the Fil-Oil Arena in San Juan.
The last time the Lady Fencers placed within the top four teams in the tournament was way back in Season 60 of the UAAP, when they last finished third.
They placed fourth in the Epee event behind University of the East, Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU), and Far Eastern University (FEU). However, they more than made up for that relatively low finish by copping the second place in the Sabre event, behind the perennial winners from Recto.
Wrapping up their overachieving performance was a decent third Foil Event behind the Red-and-White Squad and FEU. The Red-and-White Squad had six golds and one silver to cop their dominant performance while the Taft-based fencers finished with two silvers and three bronze medals in the three-day, six-team meet.
Anna Gabriella Estimada notched a silver medal in the Foil Event, which she followed up with yet another bronze medal, this time in the Epee Event.
The Green Fencers, meanwhile, finished a lowly sixth at the end of competition with only Gian Franco Rodriquez getting a bronze medal, which he bagged in the Epee Event as their only spoil of war. They were only able to finish a notch below the lowest place in the Epee event wherein they were placed fifth by outperforming Ateneo. The last time the Green Fencers figured among the top four teams was also back in Season 60, wherein they ironically placed second.
According to Shio De Leon, team captain of the Lady Fencers and a bronze medalist, a reason for their team’s strong showing was because of the intensive daily trainings undergone by both fencing teams with the Philippine Fencing Team, which consists of one-on-one lessons and lasts well into the night.
“We forecasted the team [Lady Fencers] to finish fourth, but we did not think that we would place second,” De Leon says.
The members of the Lady Fencers who achieved this Cinderella-run were a mix of rookies and seniors such as De Leon and Estimada, who is already taking up her Master’s Degree. Their experience was blended with the raw talent of their rookies and sophomores, thus resulting in their Cinderella-run toward the championship.
