Saturday, October 07, 2006 Webmasters snare all gilts in secondary division of Cesafi athletics By Jaime A. Frias Sun.Star Correspondent
THE secondary division bets of the University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters emerged as virtual champions in Cesafi athletics, after winning all the available gold medals in yesterday’s opening at the Cebu City Sports Center.
The Webmasters, the high school division athletics defending champions, snared the virtual crown against lone rival University of Southern Philippines-Foundation (USPF).
Even if UC fails to win a gold in today’s final day, they will still come out as champions, as there are only 14 more events left in the secondary division of the Cebu Schools Athletics Foundation Inc. (Cesafi).
Firm grip
The Baby Webmasters’ tertiary division counterparts, also reigned supreme in their division as they took a firm grip of the leaderboard and moved closer to retaining the title.
The Webmasters’ tertiary division bets carted an opening day gold-silver-bronze total of 12-6-7 to top the field.
The USPF Panthers grabbed second place with a tally of four golds, three silvers and a bronze, while the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars settled for third with three golds, seven silvers and three bronzes.
The Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras are fourth with a gold, four silvers and two bronzes.
Action continues today with the remaining 16 events in the tertiary division.
Anselmo Esgana and Charine Mae Roflo led UC’s rampaging assault in the tertiary division after collecting two gold medals each.
Esgana, a BS Information Technology freshman student, won the men’s triple jump and high jump events. He inked a record of 1.80 meters in snaring the gilt in high jump and 13.41 meters in the triple jump.
Eclipsed
Esgana’s feat in the high jump event also eclipsed the 13.33-meter record in the Philippine Olympic Festival in Nueva Ecija, where he also won the gold.
“I would have set a better record (in high jump) had I not been called for a foul when I registered a 13.60-meter jump,” said Esgana.
Roflo, for her part, won the women’s 100m and 400m hurdles.
She recorded 17.09 seconds in topping the 100m hurdles and one minute and 16.26 seconds in snaring the gold in the 400m hurdles.
The other tertiary division athletes of UC, who also won the gold yesterday, were Anthony Santillan (men’s 200m), Mary Joy Tabal (women’s 200m), Annabelle Nuñez (women’s 800m), Jeppy Lumongsod (men’s 10km Walk), Sarah Siocon (women’s triple jump), Janice Anne Bautista (women’s high jump) and Francis Berizo (men’s shot put) and Jorge Pinanonang (men’s 400m hurdles).
Pinanonang set a new mark in the 400-m run after his clocking of 50.55 seconds shattered the 51-second record of Joshua Taboada earlier.
Pinanonang had set a new meet record while playing under the banner of the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association in the 2006 Naga City Palarong Pambansa in Nueva Ecija and who settled for a silver medal in the Philippine Olympic Festival.
In the high school division, UC also won 13 silvers and five bronzes while USPF salvaged five silvers and six bronzes.
