Fil-Ams, Olympians head RP swim aspirants

A Fil-American who broke three women’s RP records and United States-based former Olympians lead the final cast of swimmers selected by the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association to compete in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games set Nov. 27-Dec. 5 at the TRACE Center in Los Baños, Laguna.

The list, composed of 17 men and 11 women, is headed by Fil-American Erica Totten and Olympians Miguel Molina, Miguel Mendoza, Jackie Pangilinan and JB Walsh.

Two other Fil-Am recruits in the list are Robert Walsh and Mikhail Reyes.

Totten, 17, appears to be a prized find after she recently shattered three RP records, including the long-standing 200-meter freestyle mark of 2 minutes and 7.95 seconds Akiko Thompson registered less than two decades back by more than a second (2:06.89) in the Lumino Nationals in Florida.

She also broke Joy Ong’s 100-m butterfly record of 1:05.01 by clocking 1:04.41 and Althea Lim’s 400-m Individual Medley mark of 5:07.47 with a 5:07.26.

"She’s the first to ever break the record of Akiko (Thompson) in decades," said an impressed PASA president Mark Joseph, referring to the teenage tanker who studied at the prestigious Bolles School in Florida.

Jeff Poppel, the same coach who trained 2003 Hanoi SEAG 1500-m freestyle gold medallist Miguel Mendoza, coaches Totten, whose mother is a Filipino.

Walsh and Reyes, on the other hand, came from the MAC Swim Team in Virginia and Irvine Novo Aquatics in California, respectively.

Also making the list were Timmy Chua, Kendrick Uy, Lambert Guiriba, Evan Grabador, Bonus Bordado, Ryan Arabejo, Benjamin Uy, Ernes Dee, Jan Michael Chiu, Mark Tano, Ferdinand Frigillana, Liza and Michaelmars Danila, Luica Dacanay, Marichi Gandiongco, Jenny Rose Guerrero, Heidi Ong, Chrizel Lagunday, Nikki Santiago, Bianca Uy and 13-year-old sensation Denjylie Cordero.

Joseph said all the swimmers will be required to sign a contract indicating their willingness and ability to abide by team membership and training policies of PASA. The signing is set on Saturday.