Lean but mean USC-BED is secondary champ anew

Milo Little Olympics Visayas

Runners compete in the girls’ 100-meter run at the Cebu City Sports Center. CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

Quality over quantity.

This is what the University of San Carlos-Basic Education (USC-BED) highlighted in its run to the secondary division crown in the 22nd Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals over the weekend.

The lean and mean athletics squad of the Warriors helped the team defend its title after adding six gold medals in the last day of competition at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC).

All in all, USC-BED’s tracksters chipped in 20 gold medals for 60 points as the Warriors secured the secondary title anew with 198.75 points.

“I am more than satisfied with my athletes because they knew that the competition was tougher this year because we were only few and there was a small chance of defending our title. But they gave all their best,” said USC-BED athletics head coach Arvin Loberanis during the awarding ceremonies at the SM Seaside City Cebu yesterday. “ I am very proud of what they showcased in the competition.”

From more than 40 last year, Loberanis said the team only had 20 tracksters in this year’s competition.

His two daughters, Mary Joy and Juliana Nicole, won a combined six gold medals for USC-BED.

Yesterday, the younger Juliana Nicole won the triple jump title. The rest of the Warriors’ gold medalists yesterday were Vanessa Rota (100m elementary girls), who was named the MOA awardee in the girls elementary athletics, John Silva (triple jump elementary boys), the boys and girls’ 4x100m relay teams and the 4x400m girls relay team.

The returning University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters, the former 17-time secondary division champions, settled for second place with 173 points followed by Abellana National School at third with 115.5 points.

USC-BED topped the boys’ volleyball worth 25 points and girls’ chess worth 15 points. They earned 25 points in swimming, 10 points each in basketball, table tennis and football, 12.5 in taekwondo and 14 in lawn tennis.

Historic feat for SJI

Meanwhile, the Saint John Institute (SJI) of Bacolod City finished with 73.5 points to be the first team outside Cebu to win the elementary title in the 22-year multi-sporting meet.

SJI has been competing in the meet for the last decade but it was only this year that it managed to come out on top.

“We never expected this to happen,” said Violeta Neri, the mother of the elementary girls swimming competition MOA awardee Jana Neri, who won six gold medals.

Just like USC-BED, SJI sent a lean but mean team to the competition.

“We only have a dozen athletes competing for the school and what makes it more challenging for us is that the parents and alumni association of the school were the only ones who supported this campaign.”

SJI made a living from swimming competition, where it won a total of 13 gold medals worth 60 points.

SHS-AdC placed second with 56.25 points while the University of the Visayas (UV) Main had 50 points for third place.