From a ragtag performance to a respectable finish.

This is what the almost 200 athletes of the Negros State College of Agriculture showed in the regional State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association held at the Iloilo Sports Complex Jan. 3-7.

A tailender in previous SCUAA meets, NSCA brought home two titles – in baseball and men’s taekwondo – as well as first runner-up finish in dance sports, second runner-up in men’s swimming and third runner-up in women’s basketball and women’s lawn tennis.

NSCA posted its best finish – at fourth runner-up out of 11 contingents – since joining the annual SCUUA regionals with its 18-15-41 gold-solver-bronze medal tally.

The agriculture college posted the best performance in the SCUAA meet out of  the three Negros SCUAA members which participated in the Iloilo meet, with West Visayas State University  grabbing overall honors and Iloilo State College of Agriculture, Capiz State U and Western Visayas College of Science and Technology finishing first to third runners-up, respectively.

The Talisay-based Carlos Hilado Memorial State College contingent finished fifth runner-up with its 15-15-22 medal count while Northern Negros State College of Science and Technology landed ninth overall with five gold medals, 10 silvers and nine bronzes.

The NSCA performance apparently results from the all-out sports development program initiated by its new president, Dr. Freddie Maningo, who provided many varsity team players with maximum support, including free housing and scholarship grants starting this school year.

“We’re very happy with the performance of our players,” Maningo said, adding that even other contingents were surprised with the quality of athletes NSCA fielded in this year’s regional competition.

Eleanor Castro, director of the NSCA Kinetics, Sports and Cultural Development Program, said this year’s competition is the first time the college posted a very respectable finish in the regional league, which serves as the qualifying for the national SCUAA Meet slated later this year.

The baseball team shocked perennial champion Guimaras State College, in their championship match, 18-1, at the La Paz Plaza diamond, with eight of the runs registered on the start of the match on Tuesday morning following the suspension of their titular game Monday night due to darkness with NSCA leading, 11-1.

Coach Leo Oñasa said more than half of the players were recruited by Maningo this year are rich with experience as the sluggers, led by former Palarong Pambansa medalist Carlito Valencia, started as Little League and high school players who represented Negros Occidental and Western Visayas in school-based national tournaments.

The NSCA players routed Carlos Hilado Memorial State College, 6-0 and Guimaras, 6-1, in the qualifying enroute to the championship.

Taekwondo coach Joel Pontino said NSCA grabbed the team title after Jiovanni Taasan of the main campus and NSCA-Sipalay students Adrian Perez and Romulo Ceralbo won the gold medals in fly, light and heavyweight divisions, respectively.

The dance sports pairs of Carla Castor and Paul Bryan Barbosa in modern dance and the Gretchel Garcia-Genesis Francisco pair in Latin American category both finished second behind the WVSU bets, enroute to the first-runner-up honors in the event.

Roy Tablatin, an Animal Science freshman at the Sipalay campus, topped the men’s 1,500-m to grab a swimming gold and led the 800-m relay team, also composed of Jonel Graringa, Jethro Mendieta and Albert Yangurin, to another golden finish.

Tablatin also won three silvers and two bronzes to emerge the most bemedalled NSCA athlete.

The other swimming silver medalists were Mendiola (400-m) and Jesse Mae Soberano (100-m freestyle) as well as the women’s 200-m medley quartet.

Coaches  Maria Iva Ceza Belleza and Marc Alexei Badajos said the bronze medal winners were Aires Jun Noble (400-m IM), Mendiola (1,500-m), Yangurin (50-m breaststroke and 200-m freestyle), Aiza Panaligan (200-m backstroke), Soberano (50-m and 100-m backstroke)  Rona Gerochi (50-m and 200-m) freestyle as well as the men’s 400-m medley relay and the women’s 200-m freestyle relay squads.*AVDC

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