SWU bets pull away in tertiary division

CEBU - The Southwestern University (SWU) jocks set the early pace in the collegiate division of the 2008 Cebu City Olympics, even as six records tumbled at the close of the swimming competition yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center.

SWU topped the field with 17 golds - 10 in swimming, six silvers and eight bronzes.

Rita Marcon fished out four golds at the pool followed by Richard Villahermosa with three. SWU also topped the women’s 200 and 400-meter freestyle relay, and the men’s 200m medley relay.

The other six golds came from athletics behind the efforts of Eagle Jon Galivo with two and one each from Beverly Mae Bequilla, Bonifacio Salalima, Mylyn Tangaro and Christian Anas.

SWU’s final gold of the day came from its table tennis team composed of Ronald Campus, Jared Maglasang and Giovannie Guibone.

The University of Cebu temporarily runs at second with 13 gold, 13 silver, and five bronze medals, while the Cebu State College of Science and Technology is at thirdwith 9-6-9 medal count.

On the other hand, a total of six meet records were shattered.

Trina Cañeda posted the third record after clocking in 36.28 seconds to surpass the old mark in the girls 12-under 50m backstroke event set by Natalie Tarin in 2000. She snatched five golds overall after the two-day swim meet.

Loren Dale Echavez carved two more records after registering one in the opening day. She nailed her second record through the secondary girls 200m freestyle event with the time of 2:17.93 and the other one in the 100m freestyle.

Jebb Cane had his share of the spotlight with a record mark in the boys 100m freestyle with the time of 59.42 seconds.

Meanwhile, the official standings in the basic level as well as the records in athletics event are not yet available as of this writing. Unlike in the tertiary level, the elementary and secondary level are utilizing the points system like in the DepEd-organized Palarong Pambansa to determine the rankings.

Minus the recorded points in swimming and athletics, Unit 8 is on the lead in the elementary division with 41 points, while Unit IX is ahead of the pack in the secondary class after dominating baseball which translates into 25 points.

Lindsay Salomon of St. Benedict Childhood Education Center, for her part, beat teammate Christine Bolo to win the gold in badminton, while the boys class saw Andrew Scott Uytengzu reigning supreme. Unit 8's Sheila Joy Nabua and Kurl Flores ruled the girls doubles, while Jammel Gamboa and Mark Carlo Alisoso lorded it over in the boys side.

In the secondary level, the individual golds went to UC’s Jessa Mae Lagat and Marc Sua of Bethany, while the doubles gilts were taken away by UC, which is under Unit 5. - FREEMAN NEWS