Ateneo dominates swimming in UAAP Season 77

Ateneo celebrating after copping the UAAP men's and women's swimming championship Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Swimming Pool. Asian Games campaigner Jessie Khing Lacuna and Hannah Dato won the MVP honors.

Ateneo copped the collegiate titles in the UAAP swimming championships at the Rizal Memorial complex.

National team standout Jesse Khing Lacuna led the Blue Tankers to the men's title, thanks to his seven gold medal haul in the tournament, with each one breaking the UAAP record books. It was their second in the last three seasons.

Lacuna topped the 200-m individual medley (2:05.59), 400-m freestyle (4:04.86), 100-m butterfly (56.01), 200-m freestyle (1:53.02), 50-m butterfly (25.47), 400-m individual medley (4:37.1), and 200-m butterfly (2:03.93) on his way to being named as the Most Valuable Player. He netted 105 out of the 540 points Ateneo secured in the competition.

Teammate Aldo Batungbacal was named as the Rookie of the Year, as he broke Timmy Chua's 13-year old record in the 200-m breaststroke (2:24.23) on his way to securing 90 points.

Deposed champions UP finished second with 325 points, while UST finished third with 187.

The Lady Tankers ended a six-year drought by pipping UP, 468 to 430, to take their second UAAP women's title.

Hannah Dato replicated Lacuna's feat, winning seven gold medals on the same seven events and breaking records in every one of them, to be named as the MVP.

The transferee smashed records in the 200-m individual medley (2:21.66), 400-m freestyle (4:30.76), 100-m butterfly (1:02.22), 200-m freestyle (2:07.87), 50-m butterfly (28.2), 400-m individual medley (5:05.08), and 200-m butterfly (2:19.71).

Teammate Ariana Herranz was named as the Rookie of the Year after netting 80 points.

Finishing in third place is La Salle with 121 points.

Not surprisingly, Ateneo's Sherwin dela Paz and Candice Esguerra were named as the Coach of the Year for each division.

In the high school ranks, Ateneo continued its reign in the boys' division, winning its tenth straight title with 544 points, finishing ahead of UST (318) and La Salle-Zobel (211). On the girls' division, UST took the crown with 360 points, with UP Integrated School (317) and La Salle-Zobel (235) serving as runners-up.