By Ivan Stewart Saldajeno/PNA
MANILA — The University of Santo Tomas is on track for a third consecutive UAAP general championship by leading the race after the first semester of Season 81.
The Growling Tigers are the lone team that breached the 200-point mark after all the 11 scheduled sports for the first semester were done, scoring 212 points in total.
They swept the beach volleyball, table tennis, and judo competitions while taking the women’s title in athletics.
On the other hand, the University of the Philippines’ historic men’s athletics title and men’s basketball finals return catapulted the school to the second spot with 188 points.
The Fighting Maroons won the men’s athletics championship for the first time since 1982, while they overcame a 1-3 start to their men’s basketball campaign and a twice-to-beat disadvantage in the Final Four to book a trip back to the Last Dance for the first time since they won it all in 1986, eventually settling for a runner-up finish to the Ateneo Blue Eagles.
De La Salle University, banking on its team championships in women’s chess and poomsae, came in third with 178 points.
Ateneo, despite its second straight men’s basketball gold and a sweep in the swimming competitions along with championships in women’s badminton and women’s fencing is in fourth place with 155 points.
Host school National University is fifth with 131 points, the University of the East placed sixth with 125, Far Eastern University is seventh with 105, while Adamson placed eighth with 76 to round up the rankings.
The season resumes in January with the second semester events highlighted by the volleyball and football competitions.
