Over 250 first-year students competed in the fun-filled Class of 2002 Color Squad Winter Games last Friday.
The Purple Squad narrowly edged out Navy, thanks to a late push in the Tug-Of-War event. Grey, Gold, and Orange finished behind them.
The event was designed to bring September and January students together across typical cohort boundaries.
The entire Class of 2002 regardless of section or cohort was divided into 12 color squads: Black, Blue, Forest Green, Gold, Grey, Leaf Teal, Lime Green, Maroon, Navy, Orange, Purple, and Red.
Teams faced off in a Dizzy Bat Race, a Paper Plane Contest, a Tricycle Race, an Egg Rolling Race, a Frozen T-Shirt Contest, and Tug-Of-War. Each team was guided by a second-year who volunteered to help with the games.
Bonus points were awarded to squads based on how many team members participated in the Olympics. Maroon showed up in the greatest numbers while Purple, Grey, and Navy were not too far behind.
The Dizzy Bat Race led to several competitors face-planted on the wooded floor. One Navy participant almost fell into a batch of tricycles but was blocked from doing so at the last second by a quick acting teammate.
The Paper Plane Contest led to some questionable creativity. One “plane” consisted of paper wrapped around a tennis ball. Another disqualified projectile was made up of paper weighted with a set of keys.
The Tricycle Race did not go exactly according to plan. Contestants were required to keep their buttocks on the tricycle seat and their feet on the tricycle pedals. Midway through the race, seemingly every tricycle disintegrated, resulting in each team breaking out in laughter. The handle bars flew off about 10 of the 12 tricycles. It was not unusual to see the front wheel separate from the rest of the bike either. Judging the contest was next to impossible.
The Class of 2002’s penchant for breaking things continued in the Egg Rolling Race. Squads had to roll the eggs across the gym floor with their noses. While a couple teams finished the event with their original egg, the vast majority had to go to pit row mid-event for replacement eggs.
The Frozen T-Shirt Contest required each squad to take a t-shirt frozen in a block of ice and put it on one of the team members as fast as possible. As time wore on, creativity returned with some teams racing to the bathroom to immerse the shirt in water to help unfurl it more quickly.
Tug-Of-War wrapped up the two hour event. Purple won the four-round competition to secure its first-place position overall.
The next Color Squad event, the Class of 2002 Variety Show, will take place on Wednesday, February 21 at 7 p.m.
