A member of Team Visayas’ secondary boys’ volleyball team dives to save the ball in a game against Team NCR at the Laguna Sports Complex.
Team Visayas dethrones home court-toting NCR-SL to rule Milo Nationals anew
Santa Cruz, Laguna—Revenge is a dish best served cold. After losing three straight years to the National Capital Region-South Luzon (NCR-SL), Team Visayas finally got back on top as it dethroned its home court-toting rivals en route to bagging the overall title in the 7th Milo Little Olympics National Finals yesterday here.
But the title wasn’t served on a silver platter. After two days of grueling battle in 13 sporting events held mostly at the Laguna Sports Complex (LSC), Team Visayas emerged champions by just a slim margin of 2.5 points.
The Bisdaks finished with a total of 577 points while NCR-SL wound up with 574.5. The 2.5-point lead was the slimmest ever in the seven-year existence of the grandest privately organized national multi-sporting meet in the country.
Team Visayas’ secondary division athletes topped their rivals with a total of 306.5 points while its elementary division athletes finished second with 270.5.
NCR’s elementary squad topped the competition with 279 points while its secondary division athletes only had 295.5 points.
Luigi Estrada of Team Visayas (left) slungs it out with an NCR foe in secondary taekwondo competition.
Team Mindanao remained at third place overall with 422 points while Luzon finished fourth with 316.5.
Visayas delegation head Ricky Ballesteros said the achievement was a sweet one for the Bisdaks, especially after all the hardships the athletes went through along the way, such as the long trip from Cebu to Laguna that lasted for almost 25 hours. What made it sweeter was that they beat NCR-SL in its own turf.
“It‘s the sweetest victory ever because we‘ve made a lot of sacrifices and met all sorts of challenges the world can give us,” Ballesteros said. “The resilience of the Visayan athletes really stood out in the competition.”
The Bisdaks won the first three titles of the national meet en route to bagging the Perpetual Trophy before NCR won its own grand slam and also bagged the prestigious trophy.
Ballesteros felt confident earlier that the Bisdaks would regain the overall title especially with the addition of Ilonggo athletes.
“Most of our athletes are new and reinforced with Ilonggo athletes. I expected them to put up good performances. In the final day, they put up a good fight all the way to the last match. Just like what happened in the first three editions, the fight against NCR-SL was always very close,” Ballesteros said.
Footballers from NCR and Visayas battle for ball control in a secondary boys’ football game.
Ballesteros also gave credit to Team Visayas’ staff who were vigilant in monitoring the tabulations of the scores, which is very important especially in a close finish such as this.
Among the top performers in the meet were Visayas’ taekwondo team, which swept both the secondary and elementary divisions competition for 60 points.
Team Visayas teams in ball games also delivered as the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), Saint Roberts Academy of Iloilo City, Catmon Integrated School and PAREF Springdale won titles in their respective sporting events.
The aforementioned teams combined for a total of 150 points both from secondary and elementary divisions.
Catmon Integrated School from northern Cebu finished with an unbeaten record capped off with a win over North and Central Luzon’s (NCL) UCAB Elementary School, 25-11,25-13.
USJ-R’s secondary boys and girls’ volleyball teams also bagged crowns for the first time in this national meet.
Despite losing its last matches, USJ-R’s teams were still able to top the rankings by having the most set wins.
USJ-R lost to NCR-South Luzon’s Immaculate Conception Academy, 18-25, 25-17, 22-25, while its girls’ squad also lost to King’s Montessori School, 26-24, 12-25, 18-25.
PAREF Springdale, meanwhile, finished with a 2-2 draw against football powerhouse Far Eastern University (FEU) of NCR-SL but edged out the latter through goal difference. The team only needed a draw to beat FEU.
Saint Roberts Academy of Iloilo City lorded over the elementary basketball competition and finished its campaign with a 70-51 win over University of Assumption of NCL.
Team Visayas also topped the chess and scrabble events both in the elementary and secondary divisions. The chess team was manned by the University of San Carlos-Basic Education (USC-BED) while the scrabble team was represented by USJ-R.
Team Visayas’ badminton teams from Southwestern University (SWU) also won their matches worth 30 points.