La Salle splashes to 18 golds; UST rules athletics

La Salle-Taft dominated swimming with 18 gold medals while University of Santo Tomas cornered 10 golds in women’s athletics in lopsided shows yesterday in Day 6 of the eighth National University Games at the DLSU-Dasmariñas in Cavite.

Michelle Nisce and rookie Ace Sapinoso contributed two apiece to the 13-gold medal haul of the La Salle women’s team while Beny Uy had two of the men’s collection of five golds.

UP-Diliman was a far second with 5-12-5 gold-silver-bronze medals. San Beda College was third with 5-3-5 and host DLSU-D fourth with 4-3-3.

Sto. Tomas showcased its might on the tracks, romping off with 10 golds in women’s competition. Leslie Cercado won the 100m dash in 12.4 seconds, while Milo national marathon champion finished unopposed in the 5000m run in a time of 19:00.

In men’s athletics, FEU earned five gold medals, with two coming from Siegfred Fabro in the 110-meter hurdle (15.6 seconds) and long jump (6.73 meters). The other gold medalists were John Adones in the 400m (49.5 seconds) and Melvert Ducusin in the 1500m.

In men’s taekwondo, La Salle’s Jim Gonzales topped the fin/flyweight class, while Ateneo’s Paolo Salvosa claimed the gold in the middle/heavyweight class. The other gold medalist was St. Louis U’s Michael Lemon (bantamweight).

Winners in women’s taekwondo were the University of the Philippines’ Sabrina Simbulan (featherweight) and Carmen Galvez (middleweight), La Salle’s Marie Lafortaleza in the light/welterweight class, University of Assumption’s Michelle Punzalan (flyweight class), La Salle’s Andre Ablaza (featherweight)and SLU’s Marez Dumalleg (bantamweight).

In men’s basketball, University of Assumption, behind the fourth period heroics of former PBL star Alex Bognot, crushed La Salle’s Green Archers, 91-80, to advance to the Final Four. Also making it to the semis were Adamson, which blasted UP, 86-57, and St. Benilde, which remained unbeaten in six games. The last slot was being contested as of presstime by San Beda and FEU.

After the elims, La Salle topped Group A following the disqualification of defending champion St. Francis of Assisi, which was found out to have fielded in ineligible players. UE was disqualified for the same reason, enabling Assumption to advance to the quarterfinals in Group C.

In volleyball UAAP champ DLSU-M and FEU won over SFDAC and Phil. Christian to join NCAA champion Philippine Christian University and host DLSU-Dasmarinas in the semis.