Video by INQUIRER.net’s NOY MORCOSO III
MANILA, Philippines — University of Perpetual Help is still the NCAA cheerleading’s best.
For the fifth straight year, the Altas Perpsquad on Thursday continued their reign in the cheerleading competition to hike their championships to eight.
Despite a performance blemished with falls in the stunts, Perpetual Help still managed to wow the judges with their difficult routine for a total of 480 points.
“I think the judges know the difficulty that we did. We may have had a fall but we managed to catch up with other factors,” said long-time mentor Ruff Rosario.
For finishing first last year, the Perpsquad were last to perform among 10 schools and witnessed how much the competition has toughened up.
“While watching them, we just felt excited to show what we have to wow the crowd,” said captain Rachel Madera.
“The nervousness was there. We are not perfect, all other teams have the right to develop, so we need to meet expectations,” she added.
Mapua Cheering Cardinals barged into the top three with 460 points while Arellano Dancing Chiefs reprised a first-runner up finish with 465 points.
“We know that we are target of every team. So we wanted to triple our effort and skills because I know they’re trying to match what we did last year,” said the Altas’ multititled mentor.
The Altas, though, have another achievement to chase as they try to finish on top in the National Cheerleading Championships on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Lyceum Pirates Pepsquad improved their placings with an impressive performance worthy of 450.5 points along Jose Rizal University Cheer Explosives, who came in fifth from eighth last year, with 426 markers.
Emilio Aguinaldo College came in next with 420.5 points while St. Benilde Pep Squad racked up 415.5 points for seventh place.
Letran Cheerleading Team dropped from fourth place last season to eighth this year with 384.5 points while San Beda and San Sebastian retained the bottom two spots with 329.5 and 278 points, respectively.
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