University of Santo Tomas moved on the cusp of back-to-back titles in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions of the UAAP Season 85 High School Swimming Championships after a dominant showing on Day 3, Saturday at the Teofilo Yldefonso Swimming Complex in Malate, Manila.
Renz Santos and Yohan Cabana provided the individual golds for Junior Tigersharks, pushing their advantage to 471 points against Ateneo’s 273. Santos took the 50-m butterfly title with 26.12, while Cabana grabbed his in the 400-m individual medley with 4:57.41.
Meanwhile, Aishel Evangelista, 12, established the new 11-13 age group mark in the boys’ 200-meter freestyle with 2:05.63, breaking Marco Daos’ time of 2:05.96 established in July 2018, for a fifth-place finish in the event.
Ivo Enot paced the Blue Eagles’ cause with his two golds in the 200-m freestyle and the 100-m backstroke. The Davao-born rookie won the freestyle event with 2:00.64 over Santos and the latter with 1:00.79 over Cabana.
Ateneo also had the last hurrah as the quartet of Rafael Lentejas III, Angel Tondo, Elijah Pobre, and Miguel Martinez snagged the 4×50-m freestyle relay gold over UST with a time of 1:42.76.
De La Salle Zobel and University of the Philippines Integrated School stand in third and fourth places with 46 and 31 points, respectively.
On the girls’ side, the Junior Female Tigersharks zoomed past the competition with a rousing total of 504 points.
Roz Encarnacion and Patricia Santor led the charge for UST in wins at the 100-m breaststroke and the 50-m butterfly. Encarnacion collected the breaststroke gold with 1:17.35, while Santor took the butterfly win with 29.86.
Ateneo closed the deficit off UPIS with a total of 113 points, just 11 points adrift of the latter’s 124 markers.
This is due to the rookie Lora Amoguis’ golden sweep of her three events of the day. The Davaoena ruled the 200-m freestyle with 2:16.52, the 100-m backstroke with 1:09.11, and the 400-m individual medley with 1:09.11.
UST then ended the day in style with a huge win in the 4×50-meter freestyle relay with Sinagtala Cuevas, Jeira Ayles, Helaena Morales, and Ilya Gonzales lording it with 1:59.67.
Zobel lies in the fourth spot with 53 markers.
The fourth and final day of the Championships is set for Sunday, starting at 8 a.m. for the preliminaries and 2 p.m. for the finals.
