Team Kappa-Delta-Gamma emerged victorious from the annual Mudbowl, a competition between the residents of the Knollcrest East apartments. The apartment residents donned old shirts and face paint for the event, which was held in a plot of land next to parking lot 17 that had been ploughed up and filled shin-deep with water.
Five apartment teams competed in a list of events that included hula racing, tug-of-war, limbo and a relay race. All of the events were designed to cause spectacular falls into the mud. Students who showed reluctance over getting dirty were encouraged with muddy hugs or even outright tackles into the “water.”
“You’re not meant to stay clean,” said Ana Ruttenberg, one of the event coordinators. “Yes, there was a lot of mud flinging and tackles, but that’s part of what makes it fun!”
Ruttenberg enjoyed the amount of participation she saw from all the competitors. She noted that “It’s a lot less overwhelming than Chaos Day, so it makes for a better atmosphere.”
Senior Kelvyn Koning agreed, saying he enjoyed Mudbowl more than Chaos Day, and mentioned that there was even more participation from Alpha this year.
“It makes it so much more fun when everyone’s excited,” he said.
Students expressed their excitement from the sidelines by chanting team cheers and yelling support to their friends. A couple of teams were too excited to hear all the instructions to the to the hula race and failed to pass the hoop back down the line of people, sacrificing their chance at victory.
While students enjoyed all the activities, many felt that the most impressive event was the limbo. Four students from each team formed a line and attempted to get themselves under a constantly-lowering bar by leaning further and further backwards.
“It was really a workout!” said Leira Joy, one of the competitors. “After getting under the bar you had to go all the way back around through a foot of mud. My legs were killing me by the end of it. It was still a lot of fun, though. It was amazing seeing how far people could go!”
Teams went wild as the participants dwindled and remaining competitors struggled to get under a bar that came up barely past their knees.
Team Kappa-Delta-Gamma came out on top of the games after a tie-breaking game of tug-o-war with Alpha-Zeta-Lambda.
Participants reconvened an hour after the Mudbowl for pizza and drinks. They congratulated each other and recounted highlights from the games earlier in the morning.
According to KE resident assistant Kathryn Knox, the fantastic attitude that everyone had was the best part of the event.
“I loved seeing all the team support,” she said. “Teams cheered each other on, but by the end they were cheering for everyone else as well. People had as much fun competing as they did just playing around in the mud.”
