ROXAS CITY --- With eight team titles safely tucked in its belt, Negros built a huge 90-point lead over Iloilo in the race for high school division overall honors yesterday and looked forward for a rare sweep with its elementary athletes also getting the better of their regional rivals in the Western Visayas Regional Athletic Association Meet that closes today here.

Victories came in different fronts but none were bigger than the swimming pool, where 12-year-old wonder Kiefer Piccio of the University of St. La Salle created the biggest waves with seven golds in the elementary contest, and the volleyball courts, where Negros swept the four titles disputed.

Those triumphs highlighted Negros' productive day as it jacked up its output to 225 points in the high school category, leaving Iloilo in far second with 135 under the championship points system of the Department of Education.

Felipe Dumancas, the DepEd Negros Occidental school sports head can already smell victory.

"We're heading for a sweep," he told the DAILY STAR, moments after the secondary girls' volleyball team won the crown at the expense of Iloilo.

Under the system, a team title in a ballgame is worth 25 points, while a team title in athletics and swimming are equivalent to 30.

Host Capiz is in third with 120 points, followed by Aklan (63) Antique (51) and Guimaras (39).

With multiple-gold medalists Krestia Angela Lacson, Carmela Nava, Michele Petero, Miguel Villanueva, Raffy Hechanova and Earl Steven Alvior leading the way, Negros drowned the opposition in swimming by sweeping the secondary boys and girls' competition worth 30 points each.

Negros also swept the table tennis competitions and snared the boys' archery crown, before the girls' volleyball squad claimed the title with a runaway 25-18, 25-13, 25-22 win over Iloilo.

The boys' team, bannered by Pulupandan standouts, made it a double celebration with a 25-17, 25-18, 25-19 victory over Capiz for 25 more points.

The softbelles from Domingo Lacson National High School contributed 25 points, following a 13-0 rout of Capiz in the finals. But there were also setbacks as Negros booters blew a two-goal lead in the second half and lost, 4-2, to Iloilo in the finals of football.

The Negrenses had clawed their way back from early elimination with two straight wins after losing its initial match to Capiz. Also placing second were the boys and girls' badminton teams of coaches Desirie Yanson and Jonalyn Cordero, which yielded the crowns to Capiz, and the sepak takraw squad.

Iloilo is expected to formally clinch the secondary girls' athletics crown worth 30 points, after tallying 122 points, 25 ahead of Negros with only two relay events to be played. The winner of each relay race will be given 14 points.

Only Bago athletes Josie Entrina and Ana Mae Dionela survived the Iloilo assault with two golds each.

But Negros, powered by sprint king Emmanuel De Ocampo of Victorias and Binalbagan throwing standout Dennis Bacay, grimly stayed in the tails of the Ilonggos in the boys' contest with 109 points. Iloilo has 119.5 points.

In lawn tennis, Gerard Bergavera and internationalist Martina Guba both emerged victorious in singles play by beating their Iloilo foes but with doubles action yet to be concluded, tournament officials have yet to declare a team champion, which will garner 15 points.

Also unavailable as of press deadline were the official results in boxing, chess, taekwondo and gymnastics.

Iloilo and Negros will play for the baseball crown and the basketball title today. The Negros cagers, who bowed to Iloilo Sunday but posted a tight 62-59 triumph over Capiz to get the second finals berth, are hoping to get their revenge in the 8 a.m. match.

ELEMENTARY DIVISION

The diminutive batters from Emiliano Lizares National High School showcased a giant-size performance as they turned back Capiz, 11-1, for the elementary baseball crown worth 25 points.

But it was Piccio, a fifth grader at USLS and a newcomer in the regional Palaro, who emerged as the most outstanding Negrense athlete in the five-day meet after ruling five individual events and powering his team to two relay victories.

"I need to practice harder for the Palarong Pambansa because I will be up against faster swimmers there," Piccio, the only Negros tanker to sweep all five of his events, said Saturday. The national Palaro is tentatively set on the second week of May in Naga City.

Represented mostly by St. John's Institute spikers, the Negros elementary girls' squad won the crown, after pulling off a scary 25-9, 17-25, 25-20 win over Capiz, which got a huge morale boost from the raucous home crowd at the Villareal Stadium.

The win was followed up by the boys' team, which handily beat Iloilo, 25-19, 25-15, for 25 more points.

Eight scattered victories in girls' athletics, including one by Jona Chan of Bacolod Tay Tung High School in shotput, ensured Negros' expected runaway win today.

So far, the girls' squad, led by double-gold winner Gwendolyn Narciso, has 117 points for a commanding 28-point lead over Iloilo with two events left.

Fleet-footed Jesrael Bayotas, a product of Escalante City's well-funded grassroots sports program, kept Negros' campaign in the boys' category afloat after winning two golds over the weekend.

The boys' team has 111 points, a point ahead of Iloilo, heading into the two relay races today.

Badminton action saw Bacolod standout Nikki Therese Servando of Trinity Christian School power her partnership with Merry Joy Fernandez of Cadiz to a 15-4, 15-1 win over Aklan for the girls' doubles crown.

Precious Ballenas of Bacolod City also topped the girls' singles. Her victory was duplicated by Mark Arroz of TCS in the boys' singles competition.

Christian Pavia and Ruperto Estoy prevailed in boys' doubles to punctuate the Negros domination.*CPT

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