It was the biggest campus sports extravaganza in this part of the Visayas  when St. Lasallians held their annual sportsfest from Jan. 19 until friday. The sportsfest was coordinated by the University Student Government and the Office of Physical Education, Sports and Recreation.

The opening program, held for the first time in the evening, drew an estimated crowd of about 20,000, many of whom viewed the giant screen set up in front of the coliseum, where the cheering competition, the  week’s major attraction, was dominated by Nursing cheerers for the first time.

Choosing an apropos theme, BacoLaodiat, or the Chinese New Year celebration in the city, the Nursing cheerers also  won the best choreography, best in college yell and best in bleacher cheering awards as they relegated the pre-sportsfest favorite, College of Arts and Sciences, former grand slam winner and champion for the past two years to first runner-up honors. CAS won the best in drumbeats prize.

Enginering, last year’s first runner-up, finished third with the College of Business Administration, the usual cheering tailender, settling for fourth place, ahead of former champion Education.

A sports gig was held mid-week in front of the Coliseum to provide students and team officials with an occasion to relax as the sportsweek reached mid-stream.

As of press deadline, the different colleges were vying for honors in athletics, badminton, billiards, othello, lawn tennis, table tennis, wall handball, beach volleyball, swimming, basketball, football, volleyball and cheer and dance competition, which included modern, standard and latin dance sports categories with the Nursing athletes engaging perennial winner CBA in a neck-to-neck duel down the line for overall honors.

Awards were also slated to be given to the best athletes of the year, best council governor, best student sports coordinator, best faculty coordinator and best council coordinator.