De La Salle, Ateneo bets snare crowns

Arch rivals La Salle and Ateneo pulled off impressive feats to emerge champions in different UAAP events in recent weeks.

The Green Archers completed a rare four-division sweep in table tennis, while the Blue Eagles reigned in three divisions in swimming.

University of Santo Tomas also emerged triumphant in men’s taekwondo, poomsae and girls’ swimming.

Other winners were University of the East (women’s taekwondo), National University (men’s badminton) and University of the Philippines (women’s badminton).

La Salle highlighted its dominant run in table tennis with MVP Walden Ledesma powering the Archers to a sweep of UST in the best-of-three men’s championship round.

The Lady Archers then completed a perfect season with a 2-0 shutout of Far Eastern University behind women’s MVP Ian Lariba.

Elijah Yamson and Phoebe Jumamoy likewise copped top individual honors in La Salle Zobel’s title romp in juniors table tennis.

La Salle also reigned for the first time in women’s beach volleyball as the duo of Kim Fajardo and Cyd Demecillo completed a 2-0 win over FEU’s Bernadeth Pons and Kyla Atienza in the title round.

Ateneo ruled the men, women and boys’ division in swimming for the second straight season, aside from topping men’s beach volleyball (against UST) for the first time.

The Blue Eagles captured the men’s swimming title (563 points) with MVP and former Olympian Jessie Lacuna nailing seven gold medals, while Hannah Dato similarly amassed seven win in the Lady Eagles’ title run (428).