CEBU, Philippines – Perennial champion Cebu City lived to expectations by retaining the overall title in the Regional Collegiate Games played here.
Cebu City garnered a total of 183 gold medals, 61 silvers and 20 bronzes.
Negros Oriental is a far second with a 10-85-22 medal haul while Bohol is third place with a 6-25-95 standing.
The University of San Carlos (USC) men and women's basketball teams booked their tickets for the nationals after fending off their respective championship assignments.
The USC Warriors defeated Bohol, 82-69.
The triples of Michael Cantonao, Sam Hermosa and Giovanni Padillo helped USC nail the win.
Cantonao paced the Warriors with 16 points. CESAFI Mythical Five member, Sam Hermosa, added 15 while Padillo chipped in 14 markers.
The squad will be beefed up by two-time CESAFI MVP Junemar Fajardo, Rene Pacquiao and Kurt Amores in the national finals this February in Manila.
In the distaff side, the USC Lady Warriors overpowered Bohol in dominating fashion, 101-40, behind the 26-point output of Kat Rabadon.
Over at the Cebu City Sports Center track oval, the University of Cebu-powered Cebu PRISAA squad ruled the athletics event with 37 gold medals.
The Cebu City badminton players chipped in 18 gold medals after dominating the men and women's team categories and eight more golds came for Cebu City in the chess competition.
The Latin dancers of Cebu City took the gold medals in the dancesports competition, the sepak takraw athletes and TCC karatekas had nine golds apiece.
Meanwhile, Cebu PRISAA Cebu coordinator Ryan Aznar said that they had some problems with time.
He said some of the events for the academic competitions were not held and they were forced to do the selection.
"During our meeting yesterday, I suggested that competitions that are part of the regionals should be done during the first semester. It's a matter of scheduling, if those events will be held earlier then they still have an ample time to prepare for the regionals," said Aznar, who will also suggest this matter to the CESAFI board.
The Cebu PRISAA (Private Schools Athletic Association) winners are now set for the start of their preparation for the much bigger multi-sporting event, the National Collegiate Games formerly the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) National Games, on February 20-26 in Manila. (FREEMAN)