Santo Tomas, UE, Ateneo juniors top UAAP athletics

University of the East (UE) missed a ninth straight men’s crown but its women, coached by former long jump queen Elma Muros Posadas, fairly made up for the loss in University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) athletics action at the Rizal Memorial Oval.

Ateneo also made its presence felt in the meet, bagging the boys’ crown with plenty to spare.

University of Santo Tomas (UST) was responsible for snapping UE’s reign that ran close to a decade, and triumph the Tigers did in strategic fashion in the four-day competition that ended Wednesday.

The Tigers clinched just four gold medals to UE’s seven in men’s action but thanks to the format that awards corresponding points to the gold medal medal winner down to the last-place finisher in each event, the España-based athletes were able to frustrate the Red Warriors.

Besides the four golds, the Tigers also hauled five silvers — three more than UE’s —and six bronzes in emerging overall champions with 177 points. UE, which also had six bronzes, wound up in an unfamiliar spot in second with 169 points.

De La Salle came in third with 159 points on a 4-3-5 gold-silver-bronze tally, followed by Ateneo (2-2-3-121), Far Eastern (68), University of the Philippines (60) and Adamson (56) in the men’s action.

The women of UE, however, came to the rescue and won their first UAAP overall title almost unchallenged. Muros Posadas’s wards clinched seven gold medals — five in record fashion - and with eight silvers and four bronzes more, garnered a title-clinching 256 points.

UE, also handled by Jojo Posadas, also got the most valuable player award through Mercedita Manipol and the top rookie honors through Leah Adan.