The Philippine Online Chronicles

With the football and volleyball crowns yet to be decided, the writing is on the wall in terms of determining the season's overall University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) titlist.

The current unofficial tally pegs University of Santo Tomas (UST) atop the seniors leaderboard with 262 points, a mere 15 points ahead of its closest rival and Season 73 hosts De La Salle University (DLSU), which currently has 247 points.

The Growling Tigers also lead in the juniors division.

Third-place finishes in the football tournament (men's and women's) and a fourth-place finish in the men's volleyball tournament dealt a serious blow to DLSU's chances at the overall tally. Even if their women's volleyball team were to win the championship and both football squads of UST were to settle for second, the Tigers would still have enough points (36) to have a comfortable lead in the standings by season's end.

Earning maximum points in table tennis (men's), lawn tennis (men's), badminton (men's), baseball, taekwondo (women's), and judo (women's) and garnering top three finishes in 11 other events certainly boosted UST's cause to cop their 25th seniors general title in the last 27 years.

In this span of time, only two schools (National University in 1987 and University of the Philippines in 1998) have been able to break the UST streaks since it won the 1984 title.

Meanwhile, the Tiger Cubs recorded 124 points in an unofficial count, far ahead from University of the East, which only recorded 107 points after all the juniors events were decided.

UST, which is celebrating its quadricentennial this year, recorded a double championship for the fifth consecutive season. The school has obtained a total of 38 seniors' overall titles and 13 juniors overall titles in the UAAP.

A formal awarding ceremony, alongside a street dance exhibition by the member schools and a turnover rite to next season hosts Ateneo de Manila University, will be held early next month at the Araneta Coliseum. It will be televised live over ABS-CBN Sports on Studio 23.