Martus Jr. rules USJ-R scrabble

UNIVERSITY of the Visayas’ (UV) multi-awarded word wizard Engr. Teodoro Martus Jr. dominated yesterday’s 2012 University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJR) Scrabble Open held at the USJ-R Basak Campus.

Martus won six of his seven matches for a spread of +415 points in his comeback win after placing third in the Independence Day Scrabble tournament held at the Cebu City Sports Center.

Martus failed to sweep his seven matches after he lost in the opening round due to default. But the veteran international campaigner won his remaining six matches.

Jowar Ayumo had +164 spread points to finish second while Independence Day Scrabble Open champion Darth Eslao came in third in the Expert division. Renante Dela Cerna and Jullience Labalan finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Eslao and Dela Cerna battled for third after submitting identical scores after seven rounds.

USJ-R topped the youth and elementary categories behind Michael Benedict Tuba and his younger brother Jullifer Joseph Tuba and Trisha Lyu Martinez.

Michael Benedict won the youth category which is open for high school students with +352 spread points on five wins followed by Francis Dianne Lim of USJR with four wins and +371 spread points. Louis Tan of University of San Carlos (USC) placed third with four wins and +155 spread points.

Jullifer Joseph topped category A which was for fifth and sixth graders with five wins and +435 spread points followed by Trixie Joyce Martinez with four wins and +486 spread points and Gene Therese Montes with four wins and +240 spread points.

Martinez topped category B which is for third and fourth graders while Jenikah Shane Belbes placed second followed by Yurri Mayol and Eslao’s son John Speed at fourth.

Schools which competed the tournament were USC, USJR, UV and Philippine Science High School.  /CORRESPONDENT DALE G. ROSAL