Fil-Am tanker rips four national records

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Erica Totten shattered four Philippine swim records in the tough 2009 Austin Grand Prix in the United States, including Akiko Thomson’s 16-year-old mark in 200m IM.

Totten’s most impressive performance came in the 800m where she eclipsed the nine-minute, 10.26-second mark she set in the Janet Evans meet two years ago by more than 10 seconds (8:59.19).

She also surpassed the 400m IM record of 5:05.43 in the 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games and 400m free of 4:23.68 in the 2008 Ohio Grand Prix last year with times of 5:01.43 and 4:20.90, respectively.

Totten, 20, then capped it off by clocking 2:23.59 in the 200m IM, besting the previous 2:24.19 time of Thomson, now a Philippine Sports commissioner, recorded in the 1993 Singapore SEA Games.

Totten was part of the RP team that participated in the 2005 and 2007 SEA Games and the 2006 Doha Asian Games. She is currently on a scholarship at the University of Arkansas under coach Jeff Poppel.