University of Santo Tomas stormed out of the gates to start its title-retention bids in both the Boys’ and Girls’ divisions at the UAAP Season 85 Swimming Championships, Thursday at the Teofilo Yldefonso Swimming Pool in Malate, Manila.
The Junior Tigersharks closed the day with a rousing finish, taking the boys’ 4×200-meter freestyle relay with a new UAAP best 8:15.22 with swimmers Hugh Parto, Terrence Delvo, Renz Santos, and Nicholas Radovan. They broke the previous record set also by their seniors in 2018 ahead of lone opponents Ateneo’s 9:04.45 to finish the day with 134 points and so far in front of the Blue Eagles’ 74.
Their girl counterparts likewise took the event’s gold with 9:52.62 way ahead of their lone competitor University of the Philippines Integrated School which finished with 11:47.63. The Junior Lady Tigersharks stood miles ahead of second-running UPIS in the team standings at 127 against the latter’s 47.
Ateneo rookies Lora Amoguis and Ivo Enot showed their promise, leading the Blue Eagles’ girls and boys into the second and third spots.
Amoguis won both the girls’ 100-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley titles with a time of 1:02.65 and 2:30.87, respectively. Enot, on the other hand, won gold in the boys’ 100m freestyle with 54.29 and silver in the 200m IM with 2:20.37.
Silvers from UAAP Season 82 Rookie of the Year Aubrey Tom in the 200m IM and Angela Torrico in the 100m freestyle paced the Junior Fighting Maroons’ girls to the second spot behind UST. Tom finished with 2:33.54 to share the silver with Junior Lady Tigersharks’ Ilya Gonzales, while Torrico ended with 1:02.84 behind Amoguis.
De La Salle Zobel and UPIS stand at third and fourth places in the boys’ division with 18 and 12 points, respectively. Ateneo and DLSZ round up the girls’ with 35 and six markers, in that order.
The high school championships continue on Friday starting at 8 a.m. with the preliminaries and 2:30 p.m. with the finals.
