WNU, UI fives pace Visayas Champions League elims

West Negros University and University of Iloilo posted back-to-back routs at the start of the Visayas regional leg of the 2010 Philippine Collegiate Championship over the weekend in Iloilo City.

The WNU Mustangs and the UI Wildcats now loom as favorites for the lone zonal berth at stake in the tournament that pits champion varsity squads nationwide.

Last week, the Computer Communications Development Institute Wildcats advanced to the zonal qualifiers after sweeping the South Luzon-Bicol regional leg in Sorsogon.

The Mustangs, champions in the Negros Occidental Private Schools Sports Cultural and Educational Association (NOPSSCEA), blasted Bohol’s Philippine Maritime Institute, 110-73, and Negros Oriental’s Asian College of Science and Technology, 105-77.

The Wildcats, the Iloilo Schools Sports Association titlists, also dumped PMI, 103-85, before drubbing Ormoc’s AMA Computer, 103-82.

The Computer Communications Development Institute and the winner of the North and Central Luzon regional leg in Vigan this month will advance to the Luzon-Metro Manila zonals, where UAAP teams University of the East and National U and NCAA squads Letran and Arellano U already earned outright berths.

The winners of the Visayas leg and the Mindanao qualifers in Cagayan de Oro will slug it out in the Visayas and Mindanao zonals with Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) third placer University of San Carlos and fourth placer Southwestern University.

The top six teams in the zonal will advance to the Sweet 16 round of the the league’s eighth edition.

UAAP three-time champion Ateneo, also the league’s defending champion, owns one of the 10 automatic Sweet 16 berths.

Also in the final round are UAAP runner-up Far Eastern U and semifinalists Adamson and La Salle, NCAA Finals protagonists San Beda and San Sebastian and semifinalists Jose Rizal University and Mapua, and Cesafi finalists University of Cebu and University of Visayas.