UP Pep Squad aims for fourth cheerdance title

MANILA, Philippines - University of the Philippines is expected to go all out to keep the crown in Diliman as the hotly-contested and guaranteed crowd-drawer UAAP Cheerdance Competition for Season 74 gets going today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The UP Pep Squad, with the theme “Hala Bira,” won last year’s title, its third in four seasons of Cheerdance competition. The team garnered 440.9 points from the five judges to wrest the crown from 2009 champion Far Eastern University, which settled for second with 421.4 points.

The University of Santo Tomas Salinggawi Dance Troupe, the winningest cheerdance squad in the UAAP with eight titles, returned to the top three with 407.5 points.

The Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion will try to improve on its fourth-place finish last year and hope to match or surpass its best-finish of second place two seasons ago.

But the La Salle Animo Squad, University of the East Pep Squad, National University Cheer Squadron and the Adamson Pep Squad have also vowed to crowd the favored teams in the 3 p.m. competition which is expected to draw another full-house crowd.

Meanwhile, the taekwondo competitions also resume starting at 9 a.m. today at The Arena in San Juan.

The defending champion Green Archers lead the men’s division with a 3-0 card, followed by the Growling Tigers with 2-0 and the Tamaraws with 2-1.

Reigning women’s titlist UST, meanwhile, is locked in a three-way tie for first with De La Salle and UP on 2-1 cards.