Ramirez wins 3 golds in NCAA swan song

MANILA, Philippines — Frederick Ramirez came through with a three-gold haul in his NCAA swan song, highlighting Jose Rizal U’s three-peat in NCAA Season 99 athletics even as the Perpetual Junior Altas scored back-to-back in juniors action at the PhilSports Complex’ track oval over the weekend.

Ramirez, a member of the gold-winning 4x400m team in the Cambodia SEA Games, ruled the 200m and 400m in record-shattering performances.

He clocked 46.95 seconds in the 400m, erasing the 48.03 old standard he owned a year back and clocked 21.43 in the 200m in eclipsing the 21.93 mark by JRU’s Russel Galleon six years ago.

Ramirez’s excellence helped power JRU to the title with an impressive haul of 826.5 points, an ocean ahead of the rest of the field including Mapua and AU, which wound up second and third with 584 and 540, respectively.

Ramirez ended up with a third straight crown and eighth in the last 11 seasons.

“Five-peat pa sana yan if hindi nagka pandemic,” said JRU coach Jojo Posadas.

Also taking the spotlight was another national team mainstay and SEA Games medal winner Leonard Grospe of Mapua, which swept all jumping events—high jump, triple jump and long jump.

In high jump, he destroyed the old mark of 2.04 meters shared by John Paul Sale of Mapua, Adonis Cordero of JRU and Christian Dave Geraldino of Mapua by leaping to 2.05m.

The Junior Altas collected a total of 804.5 points in 18 events to claim the juniors title with a 153-point margin over first runner-up Jose Rizal U. Second runner-up was Arellano U with 503 points.