Central Visayas still without gold

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Dumaguete’s Zoe Menguito handed Central Visayas its best output so far, winning a silver medal at the start of the swimming competition in the 2008 Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) National Games yesterday at the Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex here.

Menguito placed second in the 200mr butterfly event, while teammate Gwencent Canada grabbed a bronze in the 50m breastroke. The region’s 4 x 50m medley relay squad also turned over a bronze.

Over at the rubberized track oval, another Cebuano bet failed to meet expectations as Palarong Pambansa record-holder Jefferson Quirubin settled only for bronze in discus throw.

It was the fourth bronze won by ther Cevees after Angela Lado in shot put, Anselmo Esgana in long jump, and Jason Dumaran in high jump.

Mendel Lopez and Eugene Delposo, two of Cebu’s top road  runners, missed their marks in the 5,000m run. Lopez landed only at sixth place followed by Delposo at eighth.

Central Visayas performed well though in other disciplines, with its men’s volleyball squad cruising to its third straight win in as many games. The University of San Carlos (USC)-powered Region 7 spikers slammed Region XII, 25-14, 25-13, 26-24, and then fended off Western Visayas (Region 8) in a four-set thriller, 25-23, 25-20, 19-25, 25-23.

Its women’s courtpart, manned mostly by players from the  University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), also went 2-0 with Region V as its latest vistim with the scores of 26-24, 23-25, 25-10, 25-21.

In basketball, defending champion PRISAA-VII, still playing sans reigning MVP Niño Ramirez, logged its second straight victory at the expense of host Zamboanga, 77-72, while in football, the Cebuano boosters blanked Bicol, 7-0, before fighting to a 1-1 draw with the hard-fighting Zamboangeños.