For the second straight season, De La Salle University retains their stronghold over the entire UAAP sports calendar by gaining the General Championship in Season 76.
The Taft Avenue-based institution once again slipped past University of Santo Tomas (UST) by amassing 289 points at the close of the season, with their perennial protagonist for the overall title race close behind with 270 points.
With UST being out of contention following disappointing sixth place finishes in the men’s and women’s volleyball tournaments and fourth place finishes in the men’s and women’s chess tournaments, the Growling Tigers was no longer able to catch up with De La Salle prior to the start of the women’s volleyball championship series.
By season’s end, the Green Archers have produced six champion squads this season that garnered the maximum 15 points, namely the men’s and women’s basketball teams, men’s taekwondo, men’s table tennis, women’s judo and the women’s chess teams. They also garnered seven second place finishes equivalent to 12 points each, five third place finishes equivalent to 10 points each, and three fourth place finishes equivalent to 8 points each.
De La Salle’s UAAP board representative Edwin Reyes, through a statement relayed to Fullcourtfresh.com, exclaimed his elation over the school’s back-to-back triumph in the overall title race.
“It is our 2nd year to win the General Championship in the history of DLSU’s almost 30 year membership in the UAAP. It is not any less sweeter than the first one since the trek towards its achievement was not easy,” Reyes said.
“The overall General Championship could not have been achieved by any single person, group nor segment of the community on their own.”
In the same statement, Reyes also thanked not only the entire De La Salle community, but also the non-Lasallian supporters for their contribution in all of the teams’ respective successes this season.
University of the Philippines ranked third with 235 points, Ateneo de Manila University stands in fourth place with 212 points, while Far Eastern University (193 points), National University (154 points), University of the East (138 points), and season hosts Adamson University (108 points) round out the bottom half of the table.
The bottom four schools have yet to completely field teams in all of the calendar sports of the country’s most popular inter-university sports league.
UST holds the record for the most overall titles with 39, while FEU is in distant second with 16.
