ILOILO National High School and University of San Carlos made their presence felt in athletics Friday to set the early pace in the 25th Milo Little Olympics Visayas elimination at Cebu Sports Complex.
Determined to dislodge University of Cebu at the top of the secondary division, INHS boosted its stock with a strong showing on Day 1 to take the lead over UC and third-running Ateneo de Cebu.
Cebu-based schools actually occupied the Top 3 spots in the elementary division with USC just ahead of Basak National High School and Cebu Institute of Technology University.
The event that serves as a qualification for Team Visayas that will vie in the National Finals opened Friday with 30,000 people, including 7,000 athletes from 300 schools, in attendance.
Among the early winners were Zapatera Elementary School (elementary division) and Colegio Dela Immaculada Concepcion-Cebu (secondary division) which topped the cheer dance contest.
Also grabbing awards were Pardo Elementary School, which was adjudged the Most Disciplined and also got the Loudest Cheer awards in elementary division.
Abellana National School took three crowns by winning the Most Disciplined, Loudest Cheer, and Best in Saludo categories.
Meanwhile, the football tournament has been promoted into an 11-a-side tournament.
Other events lined up are badminton, chess, gymnastics, lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball, sepak takraw and scrabble.
The NCR eliminations is set on Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, and Sept. 8 and 9, while the Mindanao eliminations are slated on Sept. 7 to 9. Cedelf P. Tupas