FEU lady tracksters run away with 7th straight plum

Far Eastern University annexed its seventh straight crown in the women’s division of the 72nd UAAP track and field championships recently at the Rizal Memorial Track and Football Stadium. The Lady Tams amassed 304 points on a 5-12-6 gold-silver-bronze output to run away with the crown over University of Sto. Tomas, which was a far second with 253 points, and University of the East, which took third with 106 points.

It was the 19th women’s athletics title overall for the Morayta-based tracksters, the most in the league. Sharing the limelight with the long-time champs was UST’s freshman Serenata Saluan, who pocketed seven gold medals to become the hands-down choice as the women’s division MVP and Rookie of the Year. A pride of Sulu, Saluan ruled the 1,500m; 10,000m; 3,000m; 5,000m; 400m; 4 x 400 meter relay; and 800m, where she set a new meet record. FEU’s four-year reign in the men’s division, meanwhile, came to an end after the Tams yielded the throne to U-Belt neighbor UE. The Red Warriors collected only a single gold, five silver and five bronze medals but the harvest was enough to propel the Recto-based crew to the crown – their first since 2004 - with 196 points. Overall, UE now has 10 men’s championships, making it the third winningest team behind UP and FEU which own 18 apiece. FEU settled for second place this year with 182 points while Ateneo de Manila ranked third with 145, only three points better than fourth placer UST. As some sort of consolation, FEU’s Romnick Herida, the meet’s back-to-back "Fastest Man," captured the MVP plum on the strength of his four-gold medal feat (100m, 200m and 400m run and 4 x 400m relay). In the juniors division, University of the Philippines Integrated School wrested the title from last year’s champion Ateneo as the Junior Maroons compiled 305 points as against the Blue Eaglets’ 299. But the tournament’s top performer did not emerge from the champion and runner-up teams as Patrick Ma. Unso of third placer UST (188 points) carted away with the juniors MVP plum. The son of former national team standout Renato Unso highlighted his exploits with six mints. Other individual awardees were Richard Salano of UE as seniors Rookie of the Year and Christian Ferrer of UPIS as the juniors top newcomer. - GMANews.TV