UP still unstoppable in the pool

By Anthony Divinagracia Posted Sep 23rd 2013

How do you stop University of the Philippines (UP) from owning the pool?

Perhaps, get them out of the water.

Other ideas won’t suffice as UP enriched its medal harvest anew, winning six more golds to stay untouchable in Day 3 of the 76^th UAAP swimming competition.

The peerless lady speedsters out of Diliman won four golds while their male counterparts bagged two as UP highlighted another virtuoso performance to leave the rest of the field wading behind on Saturday at the PASA National Aquatics Center in Laguna.

Denjylie Cordero opened the floodgates for UP with a record-breaking 1:14.06 clocking in the 200-meter breaststroke where she bettered her previous mark of 1:14.22 in the heats.

Her sister Delia Angela capped another gold by ruling the 200-meter freestyle in 2:07.91. The Cordero sisters then ranked 1 and 2 in the 400-meter individual medley with Denjylie checking in at 5:16.37 to beat Delia, who normed 5:23.12.

Claire Adorna delivered UP’s fourth gold in the 100-meter backstroke, presiding over a 1-2-3 finish for the Lady Maroons with a 1:06.38 output.

Ateneo de Manila University claimed a pair of golds in the women’s side behind 50-meter butterfly winner Anna Celina Gonzales (29.03 seconds) and the Lady Eagles’s 4x200 meter relay team which touched in at 1:54.09 to shatter their old mark of 1:56.33 in 2010.

In the men’s division, the Maroons and De La Salle University tied with the same number of golds and silvers at two apiece. But the Maroons gained the upperhand with three bonzes to show even as defending champion Ateneo visibly struggled, earning just a mint and two third-place finishes.

Gabriel Castelo booked the Maroons’ first gold with a 26.26 effort in the 50-meter butterfly.  UP then clinched its second title of the day via the 4x200 meter relay team’s record-smashing 1:41.95 swim to erase the 1:42.46 set by Ateneo in 2012.

Season 74 MVP Johansen Benedict Aguilar also made his presence felt, topping the 400-meter individual medley and the 100-meter backstroke events. Aguilar even cancelled his previous mark of 4:43.11 in the medley race with a new 4:42.23 record.

Franz Marquez meanwhile gave University of Santo Tomas (UST) something to cheer about after dominating the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:09.53. Ateneo’s Axel Steven Ngui then secured his third individual title by annexing the 200-meter freestyle joust in 1:56.13.

Unlike their senior counterparts, the Ateneo boy’s swimming team remained solid up top, adding four more golds in its already rich medal harvest since Day 1. University of the East did the same in the girl’s bracket with four more title to boot.