UAAP swim makes a splash at Trace

It will be another De La Salle University (DLSU)-Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) face off for the second finals slot on Thursday for the basketball championship of the 70th season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). The Blue Eagles got a shot at the Green Archers after the former eliminated the defending champions University of Sto. Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers last Sunday in a knockout game to earn the right to meet DLSU.

The Red Warriors of the University of the East (UE), idle since Sept. 13, when they beat the Green Archers to sweep both rounds and thus automatically earned a finals slot, are waiting for DLSU and ADMU to wear each other out and face the winner in the best-of-three championship.

Aside from consistency, conditioning and a healthy line-up will be among the key factors for success in what has turned out to be one of the most hotly contested basketball seasons since the Final Four format was introduced. By the time either the Green Archers or Blue Eagles face the Red Warriors, the arch rivals would have each played 16 to 18 games. In contrast, UE would be well rested after having played only 14 games in the eliminations. A deep bench will therefore come in handy in such wars of attrition.

In another battlefield, the UAAP swimming competitions were successfully held over the weekend at the Trace Aquatic Center in Los Baños, Laguna.

Host UST opted to grant DLSU the right to stage the swimming championships which were held at the P300 million complex for the first time. The center, located inside Trace College, owned by the family of Pagcor chairman Ephraim Genuino, hosted the 2005 Southeast Asian Games and the Philippine Olympic Festival, among other important events.

In an innovative move, the DLSU got the students of the De La Salle Professional Schools Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business (DLSPS RVR GSB), through DLSU men’s and women’s teams coach and former Seoul Olympian, Rene (Guy) Concepcion, to handle the championships.

The DLSPS RVR GSB has, among its various degree and non-degree offerings, a sports and recreation management (SRM) program, reputedly the only one of its kind if not in Asia, at least in Southeast Asia. One subject offered in the Post-Graduate Diploma in Sports and Recreation Management in conjunction with Gold’s Gym is Staging of Sports Events.

Concepcion, who heads the SRM and teaches Staging of Sports Events (SSE), asked his SSE students to help manage the UAAP swimming championships as part of the subject’s practicum. The DLS GSB then outsourced portions of the championships to the Sports Management Solutions (SMS) headed by national Dragon Boat rowing team member and Asian Institute of Management graduate, Dina Bernardo.

The UAAP championships is a major undertaking that has substantial marketing, financial, logistical and operational requirements that call for the involvement of a bona fide sports management group like SMS. Among its sponsors are Gold’s Gym, Miladay Jewels, Smart, Cityland and Dencio’s.

The four-day championships, held from Sept. 20 to 23, drew some 280 swimmers from five UAAP schools: DLS, ADMU, UE, UST and University of the Philippines (UP).

When the smoke of battle cleared, UP and UST retained their respective men’s and women’s titles with UP also capturing the girls’ title and ADMU pocketing the boys’ championship. UST and DLSU ended up in second and third respectively in the men’s division while ADMU, UP and DLSU captured the second to fourth places in the women’s side. UST and DLS-Zobel ended up in second and third spots respectively in the boys’ division.

Several UAAP records in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter butterfly events and 400-meter individual medley relay were broken by DLSU’s Ernest (Enchong) Dee, a political science major and ABS-CBN talent and Bench model. Dee was also chosen 70th season MVP or most valuable player. Ixxi Quilala, also of DLSU, was named rookie of the year. Gian Berino of the UST boys’ team also erased long-standing UAAP records. A number of the records broken used to be held by Ryan Papa, 1992 and 1996 Olympian.