ZAMBOANGA CITY – Western Visayas struggled in the face of tough opposition and could only come up with two silvers in athletics, while powerhouse National Capital Region frolicked under sweltering conditions at the start of the National Private Schools Athletic Association Games here.

University of St. La Salle standouts Jossie Entrina and Analyn Gabayoyo provided the silver medals for the Western Visayas contingent, which lagged fifth in the standings being paced by NCR, which snared five golds, two silvers and a bronze on Day One.

Entrina settled for second in the women's shotput with her 9.68meter effort. The gold went to NCR's Jelyn Rojas of the University of the East, who threw 9.98m.

Calabarzon's Kaycee Maala, a former Palarong Pambansa gold medalist, edged out Analyn Gabayoyo in high jump when she leapt 1.60m to better the La Sallian's 1.54m mark.

Region I's Joenito Castillo, whose training regimen includes reaching basketball backboards in the absence of a high jump facility, topped the same event with his 1.90m leap. Calabarzon's Rolly Gusi grabbed the silver with 1.85m, while the bronze went to Jayson Dumaran (1.80m) of Central Visayas.

Castillo, Maala and men's shotput ruler Darren Cabanero (12.0m) of Region XII were the survivors of a searing National Capital Region assault on day one.

A former Western Visayas standout in the Palarong Pambansa, UAAP rookie-of-the-year Luville Dato-on of UST topped the women's century dash in 12.1 seconds. Making it a 1-2 finish for NCR was Nariza Rubio, who came in at 12.4.

Romnick Herida ruled the men's event, clocking 10.2 seconds, ahead of Calabarzon's Ellen Tolentino (10.8) and NCR's Romuto Mostoles (10.9).

UST's Bernardita Mag-aso, the reigning UAAP MVP, topped the 1500m run in 4 minutes, 56.5 seconds, duplicating the feat of national team member Nelbert Ducusin of FEU in the men's division (4:26.2). Trailing Ducusin was teammate Ben Alejandrino (4:29.2), who hails from E.B. Magalona.

Victorias-born Keizel Pedrina, seeing action for NCR here, topped the women's 400m event.*CPT

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