By Jaime Joshua A. Frias II
Contributor
ILIGAN City ― Xavier University (XU) lady Crusaders showed their fangs in the final two days of action to finish with five golds, three silvers, and five bronzes in the Mindanao Peace Games (MPG) 2024, which ended on June 4.
XU shrugged off a slow start with just a bronze medal from its women’s badminton team in the first two days of the five-day action of the all-women collegiate sporting meet.
XU’s women’s karatedo and chess team led the charge as they pulled gold medals simultaneously held at St. Peter’s College.
This paper uses the Olympic medal count for a partial report since there was no official medal tabulation posted by the MPG officials when asked by this writer.
The women’s karatedo team, XU’s cream of the crop, lorded over all in the medal-rich karatedo event. The wards of coach Jessica Esparrago pulled four golds and two silvers.
The kata and kumite team, composed of the same Ailyn Amparo, Keisha Mae Sailago, and her daughter Jheskay Aden Esparrago, produced gold medals each.
Amparo and Sailago picked their second gold each after ruling the 50 kg and 60 kg individual kumite, respectively.
Amparo also won her third medal with a silver in the individual kata, while the daughter Esparrago also landed a silver in the 64-kg kumite.
The women’s chess team comprised of Skyler Espina, Klarissa Vasallo, Angela Lapore, and Joharah Adap dominated the chess event with just a silver medal difference from Fr. Saturnino Urios University of Butuan.
They won the gold via a half-point lead in a thrilling race against the closest pursuer Northwestern Mindanao State College of Science and Technology (NMSCST) in the team event.
XU lady chessers finished 12 points, while NMSCST had 11.5 points to settle with silver. FSUU and newcomer Palawan State University (PSU) had bronze each.
Espina on the other hand fell short of a double gold medal finish. She had a chance to lord over the individual event after forging a triple tie with Jearaine Chato of FSUU and Jina Theresa Tero of PSU.
The three of them logged four points apiece after five rounds of battle, but Chato won the gold by a hairline difference in the tie-break while Espina and Tero landed in silver and bronze, in that order. Vasallo also won a bronze.
“We did not expect the chess team to win gold since we projected only for exposure. But they just surprised us,” said Esparrago, also the XU athletics director.
In the end, the XU lady chessers bagged one gold, one silver, and a bronze while FSUU came second with one gold and a bronze.
Providing also bronze medals for XU was its women’s basketball team by coach Janeth Yanez, football by coach Don Derrick Derequito, and table tennis by coach Julie Castillon.
Comprising the women’s basketball team were Donna Mae Tan, Alyssa Samson, Rica Naquines, Yvonne Fabre, Pauline Angelique Valle, Rio Patricia Legaspi, Glaiza Gallera Siton, Maria Selina Barcelona, Julienne Amber Dayaday, Mary Grace Talines and Princess Edevine Peñalosa.
The women’s football team was composed of Jewel Actub, Louiza Beatrice Legaspi Lim, Age Capilitan Godmalin, Gail Loking, Eunice Lourainne Quezon Peculiar, Kyla Angelic Wong Belono, Penelope Flora Maria Salcedo Mutya, Althea Monica Sotto, Faye Margella Ramirez, Jayzel Bangot, Karla Mae Ganzon Alo-ot and Joei Immaculate Agcopra.
Bona Suarez, Fiona Ryezy Roa, Maria Erica Ann Navarro, and Hailie Jade Acuzar played for XU’s women’s table tennis team.
