GPSOA held individual tournaments for basketball, chess, and table tennis last February 2 to 3 at the MGCNLCA gymnasium. The top team or players in each category proceed to competitions held by APSA-TAPAT, the second to the last stage before representing the National Capital Region.
Basketball Recap:
MGCNLCA’s grade school basketball team qualified, dominating throughout all quarters as they snatched the victory in their championship game, 27-37, against Tipas Catholic School (TCS).
The New Lifers took control of the first half, 22-8, with Jaime Uyecio scoring ten out of his 17 points. TCS struggled to shoot, scoring their first shot with 0:46 left on the clock in the first quarter and taking another five minutes in the second quarter for their next shot.
The 14-point gap closed to a 10-point gap, 25-15, in the third quarter but TCS could not edge any nearer in the fourth quarter as the New Lifers did not waver from their lead and sealed the win.
Grade school's Vihaan Chandiramani and Jessie Ty contributed 5 points each throughout the game.
MGCNLCA's high school basketball team, however, succumbed to a severe loss in the championship match, 74-84, against MCA Montessori School.
The first half ended in a tight score, 35-39, with Trey Chua leading the team with 11 points and Adam Uy with 10. But even then, the New Lifers struggled to catch up.
The struggle persisted in the third quarter, 53-65, and while the point gap got close to as much as five points, 65-70, at halftime of the fourth, the New Lifers pulled back to MCA in the end.
Chua finished with 25 points followed by Uy with 19 points and Adrian Tan adding 13 points.
Chess Recap:
Note: MGCNLCA had two representatives for each division. The schools that battled were MGCNLCA vs TCMS (Thy Covenant Montessori School). The top two players in each division proceeded to APSA-TAPAT.
MGCNLCA's Davin Romualdez qualified by clinching first in the high school boys division with a score of 2-1. Romualdez emerged at the top after going through a series of triumphant tie-break blitz games to break the 2-point tie among him, New Lifer Kyle Chua, and TCMS’ Sean Amor.
Romualdez beat Chua by skillfully taking advantage of an undefended pawn and defeated Amor through a strong opening which caused him to lose by time. Amor then finished second after defeating Chua.
Allie Ong and Gianna Villacorta of the high school girls team both qualified, claiming first and second respectively, with stellar performances. Ong had a 3-0 sweep while Villacorta had a 2-1 victory, both defeating TCMS opponents and battling each other.
The elementary boys (Arwin Hernandez and Caleb Garcia) and girls team (Iora Garcia and Bea Yu) qualified to APSA-TAPAT by default.
Table Tennis Recap:
Note: MGCNLCA had four representatives for each division. The schools that battled were MGCNLCA vs TCMS. The top four players in each division proceeded to APSA-TAPAT.
New Lifer Rhian Hang landed first and Justine Gaw settled for fourth as both qualified as representatives of the high school girls team.
With prior experience in the elementary school division, Hang had all of the games in her favor, 3-0. Gaw meanwhile had a grueling neck-to-neck first game that ended in a final set of 11-13.
The grade school boys (Nigel Ang, Theodore Mancilla, and Brendan Mancilla) and girls team (Reese Hang, Samantha Young, Abbie Ang, and Moira Cordova) and high school boys team (Caden Ching, Lance Ngo, Vaughn Cawaon, and Rafael Co) were placed in APSA-TAPAT by default.
GPSOA 2023 was a valuable experience and exposure for teams and players, especially coming back to face-to-face competitions after nearly three years.
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