Ramirez, JRU rule NCAA Season 99 athletics
JOSE RIZAL University (JRU) rode on runner Frederick Ramirez’s magnificence as it capped its three-peat feat in centerpiece athletics in NCAA Season 99 at the PhilSports Complex’s track oval over the weekend.
The Cambodia Southeast Asian Games 4x400m gold winner had his swan song as he bid his alma mater adieu with a triple-gold, one-bronze performance that included a pair of record-smashing performances in the 200m and 400m.
Mr. Ramirez timed in 46.95 seconds in the 400m in erasing the 48.03 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.
Mr. Ramirez’s excellence helped power JRU to the title with an impressive 826.5 points, an ocean ahead from the rest of the field including Mapua University and Arellano University (AU), which ended up second and third with a 584 and a 540, respectively.
Mr. Ramirez thus ended up with a third straight crown and eighth in the last 11 seasons in the event.
Sharing 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.
It was in high jump though where he drew most of the attention as he destroyed the old mark of 2.04 meters shared by John Paul Sale of Mapua, Adonis Cordero of Jose Rizal University and Christian Dave Geraldino of Mapua by leaping to 2.05m.
Those three records by Messrs. Ramirez and Grospe were just half of the six league marks that were rearranged with the other half set by AU’s Eugene Bongalos in seniors pole vault, and JRU’s Randy Degolacion in 800m and University Perpetual Help’s John Kervy Dianito in javelin in the juniors’ side.
UPHSD, meanwhile, reigned supreme in the juniors’ side and ran away with the crown with an 804.5.
JRU finished second with a 657.25 while AU third with a 503.5. — Joey Villar