Baguio City bet Cesar Castaneto Jr. stole the limelight from the hot-starting Pangasinan squad by capturing the event’s first gold medal with a come-from-behind victory in the 5,000-meter run.
Castaneto, 18 and a Physical Education student at University of Baguio, clocked 17 minutes and 50.1 seconds to top the field that included La Union’s Kiven Areglado and Cagayan’s Jaypee Dayag, who took the silver and bronze medals in 17:50.4 and 17:52.3, respectively.
"I was trailing going into the final 100 meters but I pushed myself hard, I’m happy I had some energy left," said Castaneto in Filipino.
Barefoot Lany Cardona, 16, sparked the Pangasinan charge as she copped the gold in the 3,000 meters in 12:8.3, beating provincemate Vanessa Membrado, who settled for the silver in 13:07.01.
"I’m happy I won because I wasn’t expected to win here," said the senior student at the Pilar National High.
Theresa Caaya, Rochille Corpuz, Joebert Maraya and Rhemilyn Soriano also reigned in discus throw, long jump, 110m hurdles and 100m dash, respectively, to cap Pangasinan’s golden run in Day One of this weeklong event held to discover talents who could be trained and developed to become members of the national team.
Caaya, 17, heaved a 26.23 to outclass Baguio’s Stephanie Lictay (26.06) and Amelene Castro (25.58) while Corpuz, 18, jumped to 5.10 meters to defeat teammate Soriano (5.04) and Ilocos Sur’s Rochelle Olegario (4.55).
Maraya, an 18-year-old Hotel and Restaurant Management student at Birhen Milagrosa University Foundation, struck in the afternoon by ruling the 110m hurdles in 16.1 seconds, a tenth of a second faster than Baguio’s Rico Pingol and a full second ahead of Nueva Ecija’s Billy Joe Binas.
Soriano, who had a sprint double in last year’s Palarong Pambansa in Naga City, capped her team’s superb opening day performance with a victory in the century dash in 13 seconds.
A former Santo Tomas student who transferred to the University of Cordillera, Soriano dominated the field that included La Union’s Leonelyn Sarmiento (13.6) and Nueva Ecija’s Maylin Reota (13.7).
Ronilyn Santiago gave Baguio its second gold in the event backed by The Philippine STAR, Globe Telecoms, AMA Computer University, Accel, Asia Brewery/Absolut, Negros Navigation and Creativity Lounge, as she topped the 100m hurdles in 16.2 seconds.
Katherine Pascual of Ilocos Sur and Maricris Carolino of Pangasinan took the silver and bronze medals in 20.4 and 21.0, respectively.
Over at the UNP field, Nueva Ecija downed Benguet, 5-1, in the under-15 division while Laoag edged host Ilocos Sur, 3-2, in the under-17 class in football competition.
In a lone basketball game at the UNP Gym, Bulacan smothered Cagayan, 78-61, while Angeles City dealt Ilocos Sur a 10-1 beating in baseball at the Brgy. Tamag grounds.
In the regu event of sepak takraw, Baguio fashioned out a 17-21, 21-14, 16-14 win over Cagayan and then walloped Vigan, 21-18, 21-13, to remain unscathed in Group A while host Vigan trounced Angeles, 21-11, 21-15, to pace Group B.