MANILA, Philippines — University of Santo Tomas snared a record 12th championship via a sweep of the women’s division matches in the UAAP season 76 taekwondo tournament at the Arena in San Juan.
Behind Jane Narra’s masterful 8-2 victory over Cyrmyr Perlas in the deciding match, the Tigresses ended La Salle’s short-lived reign in the women’s division.
UST’s Nicole Cham brought home the MVP award in the distaff side as the Tigresses swept all their six games.
Apart from Cham and Narra, the other gold medalists in the women’s side are La Salle’s’ Alyssa Bonifacio (finweight), Jyra Lizardo (lightweight) and Leigh Ann Naguid (flyweight), University of the Philippines’s Gen Castillo (welterweight) and National University’s Sheryl Bordal (featherweight).
UP took the runner-up honors as the Lady Maroons hammered out a 4-3 win over the Lady Archers. UP recorded a 5-1 record, while La Salle went 4-2 in third place.
La Salle, meanwhile, put an end to UST’s two-year reign in the men’s division with a narrow 4-3 victory
Kristopher Robert Uy’s decisive 14-5 win over Jeicco Lozano in the final bout capped the Green Archers’ six-game elimination round sweep and delivered the eighth overall title.
The Tigers, the winningest men’s squad with 11, fell to second with a 5-1 slate, while the Maroons zoomed to another podium finish with a 4-2 card.
Bantam Kevin Sia of the Green Archers took the men’s MVP honors.
Other top finishers in the men’s division are La Salle’s Uy, Sia, Paolo Jasmines (finweight) and Keith Sembrano (lightweight), UST’s Joaquin Mendoza (featherweight) and Christian Al dela Cruz (welterweight) and Ateneo’s Aaron Agojo (flyweight).
Event host Far Eastern University, Ateneo and University of the East filled up the fourth to sixth places in the men’s division with identical 2-4 cards, while NU went winless in six outings.
The Lady Tamaraws then tallied a 3-3 record, good for the fourth spot, followed by the Lady Eagles (2-4), the Lady Bulldogs (1-5) and the Lady Warriors (0-6).