How NU won the Cheerdance Competition

Working behind a flawless Arabian Night-inspired performance that captivated more than 20,000 fans inside the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday, the National University Pep Squad ran away with the 2013 UAAP Cheerdance Competition title in a dominant performance that saw them soundly beating the three-time defending champion University of the Philippines Pep Squad.

And if you're wondering how they did it, here’s a breakdown of the scores.

This year, the competition had four judges, who scored the competition based on tumbling, stunts, tosses, pyramids and dance while also imposing penalties and deductions. Each criterion was worth 100 points, with each judge assigned one criterion among tumbling, stunts, tosses and pyramids and all four grading dance. This meant the highest possible score was 800: 400 from dance and 100 each from the four other criteria.

Following their third-place finish last year, the Bulldogs–glittering in gold and blue costumes–garnered a total score of 696.5 points broken down as follows: 360 from dance, 90 from tosses, 88.5 from pyramids, 85 from tumbling and 74 from stunts while being assessed a single point deduction.

NU’s stunning performance indeed proved enough to end the three-year reign of the UP Pep Squad while becoming the other school outside the trio of UP, University of Santo Tomas and Far Eastern University to rule the competition since its league’s inception in 1994.

The UP Pep Squad, still the winningest crew with eight titles along UST’s Salinggawi Dance Troupe, displayed a party-inspired number but failed to perfectly execute some of its pyramid routines, causing them to slip to first runner-up honors with 620.5 points–332.5 coming from dance, 80.5 from tosses, 79 on pyramids, 77 on tumbling and 65.9 on stunts while having 18 points in deduction.

PHOTOS: The 2013 UAAP Cheerdance Competition

De La Salle’s Animo Squad, thanks to a military-themed performance, stole the spotlight by finishing second runner-up for the fourth time with 596.5 points–315 on dance, 76 on pyramids, 72.5 on tosses, 69 on tumbling and 65 on stunts against a solitary point in penalty.

However, the disappointing seventh-place finish of UST’s Salinggawi Dance Troupe–a former five-peat champion–was the biggest surprise of the competition.

Their pyramids falling one after another, UST only amassed 546 points–325 on dance, 73.5 on tosses, 65.5 on tumbling, 64.5 on stunts and 58.5 on pyramids while being assessed a whopping 41-point deduction.

With its convincing victory, NU took home the top purse of P340,000 while UP earned P200,000 and La Salle had P140,000.

“Very successful naman at napanindigan namin ‘yung concept. Gusto kasi namin maka-relate ‘yung mga bata at matatanda na nakakapanood ng Aladin. Very unique, very authentic at bago sa paningin ng mga viewers,” said NU Pep Squad coach Jhereeka Mae Bernabe.