By BEN BRUHNKE

beb011@latech.edu

 

It may not take a lot of skill to jump from a 12-foot-high diving board and belly flop into the water, eat as many hot dogs as possible in a five-minute period, or the most strenuous of all, run a 100-yard dash in a toga. But skill takes a back seat to entertainment and fun during the wild competitions of Greek Week.

Greek Week is a week-long event where different fraternities and sororities on campus are teamed up and compete in a variety of competitions. Mallory Zangla, a member of Phi Mu sorority and a junior finance major, said Greek Week is great for unifying Greek organizations with one another.

This year’s winners, Kappa Delta sorority, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and Kappa Sigma Fraternity, were announced the night of April 28 at the Que Stick, located at 2010 W. Alabama Ave.

 In addition to the awards, Kent and Laura Clark, a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority and a senior political science major, were named this year’s Greek Man and Woman of the year.

“I was very excited to receive the award,” Kent said.

“It is a very prestigious honor to be picked for this. It’s almost a cloud nine kind of award to me.”

“Fraternities and sororities are all about spirit and having a good time,” Zangla said. “But Greek Week is the best because we can all come together as Greeks and just be silly and show some spirit for our organization.”

Klark Kent, president of the Intrafraternity Council and a senior professional aviation major, said this year’s events were put together to be less competitive and more upbeat.

“We didn’t want to completely take away the feeling of competition from Greek Week, but we wanted it to be games that were just fun,” Kent said. “Think about it; how mad can you really get at someone who beats you in a hot dog eating contest?”

The week of competition began April 24 with track and field competitions that included a “wheel barrow” race, backward running race, balloon toss and a 100 yard dash.

The next day was the “belly flop” competition for the men and a dive competition for the women, where each competitor had to dive through a hoop.

“The belly flop [competition]  was the most exciting for me because I got to do synchronized swimming,” Blair Knicely, a member of Sigma Kappa sorority a senior marketing major and said.

“Me and a couple of my sorority sisters did a routine for the spirit competition part on [April 25]. It was a lot of fun.”

Bryant DuBose, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and a sophomore business major, said the belly flop competition was a good experience despite the pain.

“That splash hurt like crazy, but I made third place,” DuBose said. “I had fun, and I knew I could make a great plop.”

The competition on April 26 was the hot dog eating contest. Dustin Willis, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and a sophomore art major, said the most difficult challenge of the competition was not getting sick.

“I just wanted to put as many wieners in my mouth as possible,” Willis said.

“Before the competition started, I thought I could eat a lot, but I made fourth place. I think one of the girls even beat me.”

Guest speaker Mike Sterner came to visit the campus to discuss drunk driving April 27.

Sterner shared with the audience his experience of loss during a drunk driving incident.

“It was so sad and touching at the same time to hear him speak,” Zangla said. “I think it gave all of us a big dose of reality.”

The final competition was a team volleyball tournament that took place April 28.

Not all of this year’s competitions were for entertainment purposes.

The competition also involved a week long blood drive that took place in Tolliver Hall and a canned food drive for the Christian Community Action, a local donation program.

“The blood drive and canned food drive were a huge success,” Kent said.

“Before the canned food drive started, the food bank was nearly out of food, but we raised over 13,000 cans for them. Now they are overstocked. It’s a great feeling to be able to make that much of an impact in such a short time.”

During Greek Week, two fraternities and one sorority were placed on a team to compete together in the various competitions. During the competitions, points were tallied together for each team, and the one team with the most points won the competition.

Caty Jones, social chair for the Panhellenic Council and a sophomore speech major, said this year’s Greek Week was better than last year’s competition because of the level of spirit and positive attitudes.

“Last year was a lot more competitive, more people getting upset with each other about losing,” Jones said.

“This year worked out so well because we strayed away from extreme competition and everyone had a great attitude. The events this year were events that inspired Greek unity.”