History of the Track & Field team

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To: peterpan@pacific. net.ph; LSGH78@yahoogroups. com
From: alturaam@netscape. net
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:58:14 -0500
Subject: Re: LSGH 1978 NCAA 2nd to the last Update... and Some History from over 30 yrs ago

Fellow bastards,

A little bit more color and detail on that 4x400m a nd that afternoon:

1) The 4x400m is the last event of the meet and effectively the last sports event of any kind for the athletic season. While everyone at the time thought that the T&F championship and more importantly, the General championship, was going to be decided by that relay race alone, we had already beaten Ateneo at that point because a silver medal in the Shot Put, courtesy of our own Pol De Leon, had not been tallied or counted until the event was over. That was worth a huge 5 points, and it had somehow fallen thru the cracks. Ask Ji Reyes (another shot putter) or Johnny Gomez, our Recorder at the time. So in reality, it was already in the bag, even before the 4x400m was run. Anyway, it made for great drama.

2) Ateneo should have won the T&F championship that year and were favored to do so. Most of their medals the previous year in '77, which we also won, were scored by their juniors or their own class of '78. On paper, it should have been theirs. What happened was that LSGH had to many unknown people who just came out of the woodwork whom Ateneo simply couldn't account for. People like Art Ogtong, Andy Lee, Butch Valdez, Topher Ancien, etc. Credit us, LSGH '78, for seeking out and harnessing this talent.

3) I spoke to John Lacson, their ace pole vaulter (a DLSC grade schooler, and perennial meet heart throb) about this event years later in '89, at a chance meeting at Habo Cardenas' bachelor party=2 0in SF. They took it hard and were bitter about it. The Ateneo T&F captain, a sprinter by the name of Juaning Cabanero, who I think had run for Ateneo from the time he was a freshman, said he would run all the way home to Merville, Paranaque from Rizal Memorial-if they lost. They lost, he kept his word and ran home to Merville, straight from the meet. Jason Lim (one of our own sprinters, as Minggoy notes), taga Merville ka, hindi ba? If you know him, ask him about it.

4) In that same chance meeting, John Lacson opined at the time that if one of their own guys, a stud 400m runner/hurdler by the name of Jimmy Hofilena was there, they would have won. This guy didn't run for Ateneo his senior year so he could do drama/theater. He was really good and had medaled the year prior. Would they have won? Who knows. I raised this with Andy Lee years later. He thinks that's bullshit.

5) Art Ogtong's high jump of 5'8" was a PR (personal record) for him. On that day, the planets and stars lined up and he cleared 5'8 to win it all. A gold medal and a huge 7 points. I don't think he ever cleared 5'4' in practice or any of the previous meets. I also believe he never cleared or even jumped competitively afterwards. Mike Aquino would do 5'6" consistently and I think he had a 5'8" jump at an earlier meet. Mike was heavily favored for that evetn. He got20the silver and still talks about that to this day. I'm not even sure Art was supposed to be one of the 4 LSGH jumpers for that event. I think it was a last minute decision by Tatang to take Art over Bong Manese, a consistent 5'4" jumper. As many of you might know, Art took that medal to the great Coach Evangelista of UP, he himself a former national-class high and triple jumper. Art talked the coach into taking him in and got into UP, with that piece of hardware alone.

6) 4x400m lineup: Lito Santos ('78), Jovy Sacro ('78), Paul Zuluaga ('79) and Andy Lee ('78). Jovy was inserted into the relay at the last minute. Game time decision by Coach Tatang Mendoza. That was Gen. Ignacio's spot. Alex is still semi-disppointed about it and should be. Over beer and vodka, he told me about it in Feb '08 at our 30th. Jovy was more involved with basketball at that point and had trained very little. Running 400m flat out with little training is not something to be taken lightly, but great athletes with great lungs can do it. Jovy did and actually put an additional 5-10 m into Ateneo's runner. Ateneo was smoked in that race. By the time Andy got the baton, he already had a 20-25m lead.

7) That relay race was the last high school athletic encounter of any kind, between La Salle Greenhills and Ateneo in the NCAA. Ateneo withdrew from the league the next year. DLSU would follow around 1980, on account=2 0of the La Salle-Letran incidents at the time. Then of cour se, which I found out later from Henry, LSGH was ruled out of the UAAP in favor of De La Salle Zobel because of volleyball game foibles earlier in the year.

So there you have it. It was our fault, bastards.

cheers,
Sambo

Sambo,

Reading your Mail was like being back in Rizal Memorial in '78 again. Brings back good memories.

About Ateneo being sour and all, we were just better, faster, higher and stronger; If I remember right all the golds in the track event were split between us and Letran. Ateneo had to settle for a handful of bronze and silvers. They were just DOMINATED. John Lacson mentioned a lot of "ifs" but hey, history is full of ifs. Jimmy Hofileña my balls. The guy from Letran (Blanco, or Reyes, I think) would've beaten him anyway.

As for Art Ogtong being in a zone that day, it was more of Mike being out of it. Was Jovy Sacro a hero? All of you were. I remember Tatang deciding to put in Jovy at the third leg saying he had sseniority over Alex since he was with the team since his sophomore year(?) But wasn't Alex as well? Paul Zuluaga, Andy Lee and Lito Santos were no-brainers. The toss up was hard, since Alex practiced more than Jovy and I didn't think it was fair. Anyway, let's not forget the exploits of Topher Ancien, who NEVER practiced, Jojo Figueroa who was just unbeatable that year, Noel , Paul , Joe Jacky and Banzon, our reliable juniors.

Thanks for the memories, guys

Johnny G


Original Message-----
From: Jose Roy <jmroy111@hotmail.com>
To: sambo altura <alturaam@netscape.net>; henry atayde <peterpan@pacific.net.ph>; LSGH <lsgh78@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 5:01 am
Subject: RE: LSGH 1978 NCAA 2nd to the last Update... and Some History from over 30 yrs ago

Dear Sambo,

What a dramatic account. Great memories, great feelings of being a La Sallite. Tears welling in my eyes when you mentioned the golden contribution of Jason Lim.

-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Atayde
To: jm_padua@yahoo. com; lsgh78@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 7:07 am
Subject: RE: LSGH 1978 NCAA 2nd to the last Update


Pare! What a memory you have. I felt bad that I missed all the celebration after the 4 X 4 team captured the gold which was needed to win the Track and Field over-all championship and the General Championship because I had to go to Taft and call Br. Gabe Cannon who arrived for the awarding. Atleast I saw us win! Animo 78! Henry From: LSGH78@yahoogroups. com [mailto:LSGH78@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Miguel Padua
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 8:33 AM
To: lsgh78@yahoogroups. com
Subject: Re: LSGH 1978 NCAA 2nd to the last Update

We also won the NCAA General championship trophy in 1978! This was the year that Art Ogtong became the gold medalist and luckily for us, Jason Lim was a member of the track team. This was also the year that Henry Atayde dashed all the way to De La Salle through the back entrance of Rizal Memorial in order to rouse the Brother President and happily inform him that the 1978 Bastards and Bullies captured the;NCAA General Championship trophy. Padua --- On Thu, 2/26/09, Henry Atayde wrote: From: Henry Atayde Subject: LSGH 1978 NCAA 2nd to the last Update To: onelasalle@yahoogro ups.com, "Manos" , LSGH78@yahoogroups. com, dlsaamancomm@ yahoogroups. com, "'alumni'" , spdo@lsgh.edu. ph, "Br. Felipe Belleza" , "Br. Vic Franco" , "Br. Dodo Fernandez" , "Br. Bobby Casingal" , "Bacay, Ma. Socorro C." , "SONNY ALVAREZ" , "'Br. Bernie Oca'" <ocab@dlsu.edu. ph>, LSGH78@yahoogroups. com, combatch82@yahoogro ups.com, "regina barrenechea" , "Cindy Banaria" Date: Thursday, February 26, 2009, 6:39 AM Dear Lasallian Community, La Salle Green Hills is celebrating it’s 50th year with the NCAA General Championship already in it’s grasp. And what better way to20close the 84th NCAA Season then by winning the Track and Field Over-All Championship! During the past two days, the LSGH Track & Field Team started with strong finishes in all the heats, having 3 or 4 participants in every Finals running event, aquiring numerous gold , silver ad bronze medals. Not to mention the 4th and 5th finishers which also contributed points to the team. Numerous records were broken. The highlight of the running events was the 4 X 100 meter relay. We won this event with just fractions of a second. I will announce the record breakers in a later date. And to think, we were seeded below San Sebastian and Letran. The another surprise was the success of our athletes in the field events which was always dominated by San Sebastian. To highlight the occasion, our Pole Vaulter broke the NCAA record that stood for 5 years! =0 A As of today, in Track &a mp; Field, LSGH is ahead by 149 points. The events for Friday (tomorrow) are the finals for triple jump, the high jump, the steeple chase, javelin, 2000 meters, 800 meters , 200 meters and the 4 X 400 meters. We are confident of winning the gold in the 800 and 200 meters plus the 4 X 4. We would probably sneak in a couple of silvers and bronze plus finishers in the rest of the day’s events because our boys had qualified in all. So I guess, the title is ours. This will give LSGH a total of 5 Championship Trophies out of 9 events. Beach Volleyball is still a demonstration sport for the Juniors. The last Track and Field Championship of LSGH was in 2006. We also won the General Championship at that time. Awarding of medals will take place tomorrow starting at 2 pm . While the awarding of the20 over-all trophy and the general championship trophy will be at around 4:30 to 5 pm. As for the senior division, Mapua is dominating the field with Letran and CSB fighting for 2nd. This is very important because a second place finish may also give the CSB Senior Team the General Championship. By the way, CSB was the General Champion in Season ’83. At that time, LSGH lost to San Sebastian by just 3 points. Let us pray that both schools will be victorious tomorrow. I invite all of you to go to Rizal Memorial and support our teams. ANIMO LA SALLE! Henry