​UB retains BBEAL overall title

KARLSTON S. LAPNITEN
Special to the Baguio Chronicle

THAT’s it! The 26th Baguio-Benguet Athletic League (BBEAL) has ended and when the smoke cleared this Sunday, it seemed a déjà vu of the last season as overall results saw the University of Baguio Cardinals still perched atop its stubborn rivals Saint Louis Navigators and University of the Cordilleras Jaguars.

Despite losing three titles in this year’s run, the Cardinals’ 11 top finishes, seven from the second leg, were enough to proclaim them the Overall Champion over the Jaguars who edged the Navigators’ seven event titles by one.

In the first phase of last year’s BBEAL, the Navigators took the lead anchoring double championships in volleyball. SLU men sank surprise finalist Cordillera Career Development College Admirals to win its third straight title while the lady Navigators seized the crown from the Cardinals in a comeback victory after an upsetting fifth-set loss in the eliminations, their first title after ten years.

Women-power steered the Navigators’ as they hauled in top trophies in table tennis, chess and badminton, capping their first season run with a feather from the men’s archery.

Also closing the first semester impressively, the Jaguars initially took off with a back-to-back victory dominating the men and women’s basketball. UC crushed UB in their third face-off in the best of three series to walk away with the men’s basketball championship, probably the most coveted crown in the BBEAL.

On the distaff side, the lady Jaguars notched a 3-point win in their second game to steal the crown from the Navigators after taking them out in their first of the scheduled three clashes.

UC also added to its tally the ladies’ archery and the men’s chess, which is their first after more than two decades.

As expected, the Cardinals netted the swimming events in both men and ladies’ category. UB owns a big advantage over other BBEAL schools for having its own swimming pools unlike others who will have to go to the Athletic Bowl or private resorts to train. UB men also lorded over the racket events defending their table tennis title and sweeping the badminton title off SLU.

In the second season, SLU’s luck ran out as it only added the softball men’s championship ending their overall BBEAL run.

For the Cardinals though, the second semester must have been the perfect season for reckoning as they clawed adjacent wins in the athletics, Taekwondo and Arnis adding the ladies’ Lawn tennis title.

Stamina runners Joan Caido and Melva Cawid played Sunday morning heroes raking five golds each to boost the Cardinals’ standing.

In Judo, CCDC and UC slammed their way through upsetting the favorite bet, UB, as they wrestled the men’s title and women’s title, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Benguet State University Buffalos closed this year’s BBEAL by clinching the football and baseball crown in its own backyard while receiving two more championships thru grace from UC’s title wins but were overturned as reviewed by the BBEAL committee in charge.

The Jaguars’ supposedly 16th straight title win in Sepak Takraw was overturned after Baguio Central University filed a complaint citing some of UC’s regular players did not meet requirements set by the BBEAL rules and regulation awarding the crown to first runner up BSU.

In a similar case of being unable to meet requirements, the UC softball ladies, who were champions in the recent PRISAA, were disqualified and the title got awarded to BSU after the latter beat the lady Navigators.

According to this season’s commissioner Ed Laureano of UB, the boxing events will not push thru and the results are final and can no longer be contested.

On the True Colors Beach Volley which was joined by BBEAL schools, Laureano expressed a possibility for it to become a permanent event in the future BBEAL.

“We are praying that it runs smoothly, well and good, then we’ll try to make a move to permanently add it to our growing sports events in the BBEAL,” he mused.

This year’s BBEAL was also joined by the newest incomer, Baguio College of Technology Atoms, the University of the Philippines Maroons, the Philippine Military Academy Cavaliers, the BCU Eagles and the Pines City Colleges Warriors.*