Records tumble as USC tankers dominate

CEBU, Philippines – The University of San Carlos triumphed bigtime at the end of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. swimming competition not only for defending its tertiary crown and claiming the overall supremacy, but also for breaking 15 meets records yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center.

USC hauled 39 out of the 43 golds at stake in the tertiary battle it laced with 22 silvers and eight bronzes. The remaining four gilts were split by the the University of the Visayas and the University of Cebu.

Loren Dale Echavez added two more golds for USC through the 50m and 100m freestyle. The other Carolinians who stuck golds were Bryan Inayaga and Jelienne Wee with two golds apiece from the 50m and 100m backstroke, Edgar Jarina in the 400m IM, Karmel Ocampo in the 200m breaststroke, Jazel Illustre in the 200m butterfly, John Beltran with two golds through the 50m and 100m freestyle, and Mikael Llorente in the 400m IM. They also carted away four golds from the relay action.

UC was spared with a gold through the efforts of Romylin Nina Iganacio in the 200m backstroke.

UC, however, hold on to its lead to reign supreme in the secondary division with 15 golds, eight silvers and six bronzes. USC came out second with a 6-9-11 g-s-b tally followed by Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (6-7-8), Cebu Eastern University (3-2-0), and the University of San Jose-Recoletos (0-3-1).

Michael Ichiro Kong grabbed two more golds through the 200m butterfly and 50m freestyle, Karen Mae Indaya grabbed one more gilt in the 100m backstroke and Shane Pareja in the 200m breastroke, while Lunsay Gonzales got the 50m freestyle gold.

SHS-AdC snared two more golds behind the efforts of Johann Tubesa in the 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke.

USC, for its part, snatched two more golds through Lyh Ann Navarro in the 100m freestyle and Razel Cabajar in the 200m butterfly.

Aside from that, USC tallied 15 of the 17 meet records broken from both levels.

Loren Dale Echavez broke Abegail Sakib’s record in 2011 of 2:50.23 with her 2:48.41 in the 200m IM. She also improved her own mark in the 100m free from 1:05.58 to 1:02.07 and her 50m freestyle from 28.34 to 28.09.

Loren Dale together with sister Ara Denise, Florence Facto and Jelienne Wee also broke their 2011 mark in the 4x50m freestyle relay of 2:07 to 2:06.78.

Wee shattered one of the oldest existing records in the CESAFI swimming owned by Larissa Ang in 2006, the 50m backstroke of 36.1 with the former’s 35.13 clocking.

Another top USC bet, Keith Ocampo, set three new records in the 1,500m freestyle (18:59.75), 200m freestyle (2:10.91), and 400m freestyle (4:42).

He also led  USC’s record-breaking performance in the 4x100m freestyle relay with the time of 4:01.06.

Ocampo's teammate Mikael Llorente also established a record in the 100m buttefly with the time of 1:03.84 and in 200m butterfly (2:27.78). Bryan Inamarga now owns the 50m record at 29.57 seconds, while USC topped the boys 4x50m and 4x100m medley relay with  record times.

The other two records were set by UC’s Michael Ichiro Kong in boys 200m freestyle and the 4x50m freestyle relay team of SHS-AdC anchored on Frederic Albert Yuan Chiongbian, Johan Tubesa, Jezrl Tan and Val Chiu. (FREEMAN)