Miguel Villanueva and Kiefer Piccio of Negros Occidental left little doubt of their Palarong Pambansa gold medal potentials as they powered Negros Occidental to overall honors in the Western Visayas Regional Athletic Association Meet swim competitions.

With Villanueva and Piccio snaring five individual golds each, Negros took three of the four swimming crowns staked in the two-day competitions at the Panaad Olympic Pool.

Negrense aquabelle Dominique Balinas, a double-gold winner in last year's national Palaro, capped her bid with three individual golds and two bonus victories in the relay event, while teammate Carmela Nava of St. Joseph-School La Salle also picked up three individual golds.

Iloilo spoiled the sweep by ruling the elementary girls' division, where a young tanker from Antique, Rikka Duarte, pulled off a freestyle hat-trick.

Negros topped the elementary boys' category with 167 points over Iloilo's 115 as Piccio, 12, reigned supreme in the 200-m free, 200-m IM, 100-m free, 50-m free and 100-m fly. He also helped Negros win the gold in the 4x100-m medley and the 4x100-m free.

Rafael Bacaoco, Joshua Balinas, Tom Allan Erojo and Carlo del Carmen also struck gold for Negros in the elementary division. Villanueva, 16, stamped his class in the secondary boys' division, where Negros accumulated 164 points for another convincing victory over Iloilo, which finished with 115.

The St. La Salle-Integrated School senior's victories came in the 100-m back, 100-m free, 200-m free, 200-m back, 200-m IM as well as the 4x100-m medley and the 4x50-m medley.

Villanueva's teammate, Patrick Percano won two individual golds --- 100-m fly and 200-m fly. Adrian Cua also boosted the Negros cause by ruling the 400-m free.

Negros collected 165 points in the secondary girls' contest with Balinas dominating the 100-m fly, 200-m fly, 200-m IM, before settling for the silver in the 200-m back. She added two more golds, after powering the Negros squad to victory in the 4x50-m medley and 4x100-m medley races.

Nava, who will graduate from SJS-LS next month, grabbed the gold in the 400-m free, 200-m free and the 100-m free. She also won the silver in the 200-m fly, before winning her fourth gold in the 4x50-m medley.

Tanya Chloe Rosales was the lone gold winner for Negros in the elementary girls' contest, after she topped the 50-m breast.

Negros' team titles were worth 30 points each in the championship table. Dr. Reynella Phoebe Ybañez served as tournament manager. *CPT

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