“We are blessed to be the first runner-up,”
The University of Santo Tomas Salinggawi Dance Troupe roared for a better UAAP Cheerdance Competition ranking after placing 2nd on Saturday, an improvement from their 3rd place finish last year.
Coach Ramon Pagaduan IV said that they had only a month to practice since eight of the new dancers were freshmen. Since the school opening was late this year, the new dancers were only able to enroll last August, hence the one month-practice lead time. “Hinintay ko sila mag-enroll. Hangga’t hindi pa sila enrolled, hindi pa sila Tomasians,” Coach Ramon said of the freshmen-dancers.
UST scored a total of 651.5 points, 354 of which was for the dance part of their routine. UST Salinggawi got the highest number of points for dance, 14 points more than the 340 score of first placer NU Pep Squad.
IN PHOTOS: UAAP Cheerdance Competition 2015
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NU and UST had slightly similar themes: caveman and Africa respectively. NU’s Jica Bernabe revealed that her team also wanted to go African but when they found out that this was also UST’s theme, they decided to tweak theirs to caveman, calling theirs the “NU Era.”
IN PHOTOS: UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe’s 2015 Cheerdance routine
On Coach Ramon’s part, he said that he merely maximized his team member’s strengths, preferring to keep alive the Salinggawi’s illustrious legacy in UAAP Cheerdance. “Frankly we didn’t expect this (na mag-second place kami),” Coach Ramon reiterated. “We just expected to do a smooth routine, one that would be deserving of the support of the Tomasian community.”
He also paid tribute to all the other schools saying, “Every cheerdance team deserves to win dahil sa hirap ng training.”
The UST Salinggawi took home almost 300,000 worth of prizes, including 200,000 pesos cash, and 95,000 worth of prizes from advertising sponsors. They also won first-place finish in the Group Stunts category.
UST-SDT has the most number of UAAP Cheerdance Competition championships together with UP, having 8 titles to their names.
IN PHOTOS: UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe’s 2015 Cheerdance routine
IN PHOTOS: UAAP Cheerdance Competition 2015
