Felipe, Dalmacio power UE Warriors
UNIVERSITY of the East’s (UE) fencing stalwarts Nicollei Felipe and Queen Dalmacio delivered crucial victories for the Red Warriors as the two retained the gold medal in their respective categories in the Season 86 of the UAAP Fencing Championship in Day 2 of action on Friday, March 15, at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion in España, Manila.
Felipe, a member of the national team, went undefeated from pool round and in Direct Elimination (DE) capped by a masterful 15-8 victory over UE teammate Robert Cabaero in the women’s foil individual finals.
Felipe won all four bouts in the pool round to earn the No. 1 seed in the DE, defeating Joseph Den Amores of University of Santo Tomas (UST), 151, in the quarterfinals before dealing Jose Lorenzo Mercado a 15-11 decision in the semifinal round of the four-day competition.
As for Dalmacio, she edged fellow national team member and UST’s Ysah Catantan, 15-7, in a rematch of last season’s women’s sabre individual finals, which, unlike the previous year when the latter rallied to make it a thrilling bout but fell short, the former dictated the game to claim back-toback gold medals.
“It was a relief getting the win, because I worked hard to get the gold medal,” said Dalmacio, who had to mix her time training for UE and the national team with her studies since she is now a fourth-year student-athlete.
The gold medal wins of Dalmacio and Felipe put the Red Warriors in the race for the overall title in the men’s and women’s categories, respectively.
UE, UST and De La Salle University now have one gold medal each in the men’s medal tally, while University of the Philippines — behind the gold medal wins of Juliana Gomez in women’s epee and Nana Carbonell in women’s foil — leads the tally with two gold medals followed by UE with one.
UST and La Salle got a gold medal each in men’s category courtesy of Daniel Villanueva in men’s sabre and Edan Ensamtan in men’s epee, respectively, and are tied with UE with one gold medal apiece.
Meanwhile, Sophia Catantan won a second gold medal after winning in the girl’s sabre with a 15-12 victory against UE teammate Adrienne Lising in the finals. She retained the gold medal in girl’s foil last Thursday, March 14.
In boy’s foil, Louis Shoemaker — now a Grade 12 senior high school — waited for more than a year to exact revenge against UE teammate James Lim as he hammered a 15-8 win in the finals.
Aubrey Fernandez, on the other hand, clinched the gold medal in girl’s epee by beating UE’s teammate Nina Canlas, 15-9 — an improvement from her bronze medal finish in girl’s foil.