Tuesday, September 23, 2008 UC wins 5 out of 6 golds in Cesafi
THE UNIVERSITY of Cebu highschool badminton squad dominated the badminton competition secondary division of the 2008 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc held at the Southpoint Badminton Alley in Basak, Cebu City last Sunday.
The UC players won five out of the six titles at stake in the competition with the University of the Visayas (UV) denying UC of a gold medal sweep.
Not only this, UV also spoiled University of San Jose-Recoletos’ (USJ-R) attempt to win all the gold medals in the collegiate division after UV duo of Brian Tanudra and Pamela Villarma wrested the mixed doubles title away from USJ-R.
USJ-R was on a roll as it won all the titles that were up for grabs last Saturday, until UV’s Tanudra and Villarma came into the picture.
Tandura and Villarma bounced out of the losers’ bracket with a 21-16, 21-17 win to forge a winner-take-all finals match over USJ-R’s Sandy Chua and Dale Bitor.
In the finals match, Chua and Bitor quickly established control as they posted a 21-13 first set win.
However, the UV duo came back and rallied hard in the next two sets for them to win the gold medal.
In the highschool division, leading UC’s charge is Milo Little Olympics gold medal winner and outstanding athlete awardee Mark Puentevella, who won the boys singles division .
Puentevella took the title following a 21-12, 21-17, win over UV’s John Niño Taboada.
Geralyn Taboada, on the other hand, took the title in the Girls Singles A division after defeating Leslie Batuto of USJ-R.
Jessa Mae Lagat then won the Girl’s Singles B gold medal with a 21-7, 21-6, win over Monique Cabreros of USJ-R.
UC looked headed for a sweep in the singles division until Jed Allison Cagulada of UV made his presence felt in the Boys Singles B division.
After a 17-21 loss in the opening set, Cagulada labored hard in the next set to beat UC’s Noe Layan, 21-17, forging for a tie-breaker.
All Cagulada had to do was ride on the momentum of his second set win to pull off a 21-17 decision in the third set to win the gold for UV.
Meanwhile, Irish Mae Ares and Julie Marie Malazate won the Girls doubles title for UC after beating Jecca Galvan and Ellise Masongsong of USJ-R. Joe James Taboada and Aljun Pinote defeated brothers Boej and Ladd Cabrera of UV in two sets 21-10 and 21-16 to win the Boy’s Doubles title. (RCM)
