The Varsitarian

IT’S NOT only the grown-ups who know a thing or two about winning – and dominating.

Ditto with their college counterparts, the UST High School remained on top of the UAAP juniors’ general championship ladder for the second straight year, copping their 10th over-all plum in Season 70.

Backstopped by titular exploits in girls’ volleyball, boys’ athletics, taekwondo, and table tennis, the UST juniors registered an imposing 99-point total to overpower Ateneo De Manila High School and De La Salle-Zobel, which placed second and third with 83 and 69 points respectively.

“Desire is not enough,” UST Athletic Moderator Felix Silbor told the Varsitarian. “There were a lot of factors that we lack in so many aspects but the fact is that the players did their best and that is why we keep on winning though not consecutively.”

Prior to scoring a repeat, the UST juniors won the over-all title for five consecutive years from 1995 to 2000 and posted a three-peat from 2002 to 2005 before the University of the East (UE) stole the limelight in 2006.

In Season 69 however UST regained its old billing as the best assemblage of high school talents in the league, tallying 105 over-all markers to eclipse UE’s 103-point output.

Four times the cheer

With two-time MVP and veteran hurdler Jose Renato Unso at the helm, the UST junior tracksters extended their reign to a historic “five-peat.”

Meanwhile, the high school jins kept their choke-hold of the juniors taekwondo title for the third straight season with Jerry del Rosario emerging as the league’s best newcomer.

The junior paddlers led by Season 70 MVP Carl Espiritu, also maintained their supremacy on the table, fashioning a “three-peat” of their own.

Powered by Season 70 MVP Alyssa Valdez and Rookie of the Year Charisma Buan, the UST volleybelles unseated three-time champion UE with a remarkable 6-0 sweep to offset the dismal fourth-place finish of the boys’ team.

Also stumbling at fourth are the junior chessers, who slid a rung lower from their third-place finish in Season 69.

The España-based campaigners took runners-up honors in swimming and judo, finishing behind Ateneo in both sports even as junior tigershark Gian Daniel Berino captured the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards.

Downside

UST received its own share of woes this season, yanking out dead-last in basketball and football.

Hampered by a rookie-laden line-up, the UST Tiger Cubs languished at the bottom of the standings with a forgettable 2-12 win-loss card while the junior booters hogged the cellar, going 0-6 in their double round-robin face-offs against Ateneo, FEU and La Salle. H.J.D. Brobo