San Beda University continued to rake in the golds in both men’s and women’s senior divisions even as Perpetual Help’s Russell La Torre stole the some of the spotlight with a record-breaking effort in the juniors’ class of the 94th NCAA swimming competition at the Rizal Memorial Aquatics Center in Manila.
La Torre, who raked in five gold medals in the Philippine National Games in Cebu last May, took the 400m freestyle gold in four minutes and 18.33 seconds, but he made his presence felt in the morning prelims when he set a new record with a clocking of 4:18.15.
The Red Tankers kept making a big splash thanks to golden efforts of Celine Anne Delotavo in the women’s 400m free, John Henry Gurango in the men’s 400m free, Chloe Medina in the women’s in the women’s 100m backstroke, Chris Alcher Calderon in the men’s 200m breaststroke, the men’s and women’s 200m freestyle relay teams.
The Day Three effort was enough to clinch San Beda the senior men and women titles as it has amassed 927.5 and 936.5 points going into the fourth and final day.
St. Benilde, which got golds from Aziz Jan Pukunum (100m back), Justine Anne Abastillas (50m fly) and Christopher Wong (50m fly), was a distant second in both divisions with 465 and 411.25 points.
CSB, however, leads the juniors’ section with 518.5 points, but San Beda and Perpetual Help were not that far behind with 497 and 411.25, respectively.
Christine Lorente of Jose Rizal struck gold in 200m breast in 2:52.38, while Albert Santos, Anfer Tagao, Aaron Alagban and Marione Barcelon snatched the 200m free juniors’ relay in 1:45.16.”‹