by Taylor Brethauer & Megan Dreher, Senior Writer & Editor-in-Chief

Student Government brought back an old event from years past on Friday, March 29: Dorm Wars. The event was hosted by the Resident Student Association (RSA).

Sign-ups for the event began back in January, where students could sign up to represent their dorm building: Jasper, Chrysostom, Lee, Horan, and Overlook Manor (OV).

Students were welcomed to Draddy Gymnasium by RSA with music, pizza, and free t-shirts boasting a Star Wars-esque design.

The Resident Student Association is headed by vice president of residential affairs, Isabel Quinones.

“I brought back the Dorm Wars because I wanted an event for residential students to have some friendly competition. We always hear of students saying Jasper is the best hall or Horan is the best, but we’ve never been able to prove it. So I thought a night to promote residential life and building communities would be a great opportunity for my position in Student Government to work on,” said Quinones.

Teams lined the Sixth Borough bleachers with posters for their teams as they painted each other’s faces with their team colors. For OV, their color was black. Lee was white, Horan was blue and Chrysostom and Jasper, on a combined team, were purple.

Steven Owens and Gianna Pavone, resident assistants from Horan Hall, served as commentators along with Quinones and explained the games.

The first of the night was titled Star Wars, which was a giant game of dodgeball but with pool noodles and Jedi savers.

“Star Wars was probably my favorite event. There were pool noodles and balls flying all over the place. It was so much craziness in two minutes,” said junior Brooke Hynes, a member of Horan’s team.

For the entirety of the night, one dorm would be up against another. The loser of the first round would be out and receive 50 points and the winner would play the winner of the next round. The final round was between the two winners. The winner of the final round would take first place (500 points) and the loser would take second place (250 points).

A wide range of students attended, from athletes to groups of friends to RAs. For sophomore Shanice Lyle, she threw caution to the wind and cheered loud and proud for her team, Horan Hall.

“A friend suggested I sign up, plus I was assisting Student Government with tabling for the event so I thought why not! So glad I went! It was a night to remember […] My favorite part of the night was just interacting with such great people from different dorms on campus. I loved cheering my team on and lost my voice doing so, but it was absolutely worth it because we won,” said Lyle.

After Star Wars came volleyball. Team members stood on the sidelines of the court cheering on their own team and the others as well. The referees for the evening were student workers from the Intramurals office.

As the winner was decided from the volleyball tournament, a game of knockout basketball was started to determine who would go to the final round.

Then came the Tug of War contest. Each team had to win best two out of three and selected their strongest players.

Anja Pollozi, the co-captain for the Horan team and an RA for the building, particularly enjoyed the Tug of War game.

“There were several special fun moments, but my favorite part was the constant support– the high-fives, the cheering, the clapping– and the laughs we shared with each other throughout the night. I would say tug-of-war created a tough and close competition between the teams and was pretty fun. Dorm Wars was one of the most entertaining events I have done all year,” said Pollozi.

The team captains were RAs from all of the buildings and served as the point people for the teams.

Piotr Zarzecki, the other co-captain for Horan and an RA for the building, was proud of his team throughout the night.

“My role as team captain was to try to get as many people involved as possible and to make sure everyone was having fun. Horan did a great job showing dorm pride and really got into the games so they definitely made my job a lot easier,” said Zarzecki.

Then came a major team effort for each dorm building in the relay races. Pairs had to velcro a strap around their ankles for a three-legged race, then take the band off and do the wheelbarrow on the way back.

Though members of Lee Hall’s team were unsuccessful in taking home the victory, they celebrated the overall experience of the night.

“We really tried to get everyone excited and it was a lot of fun to see our building get excited when we did fairly well in the relay race event. I got a chance to meet some kids from my building that I haven’t really had a chance to talk to,” said senior Dan Sammon, an RA in Lee.

The deciding game for the night was dizzy bat, where players had to spin around a bat five times and then sprint to one side and back to secure the victory for their team. It came down to OV and Horan: OV was at 1375 points while Horan was at 1125. OV won the dizzy bat race, earning their team 500 points and Horan earned 250 points.

After calculating the scores, Quinones announced there was a tie between OV and Horan, with both teams at 1625 points. Quinones, Owens and Pavone decided amongst themselves what the tiebreaker event would be. It was decided it would be a 200mm relay race, with five representatives from both teams passing off a pool noodle.

“My team was a bit nervous going into the tie-breaker relay with OV, but we had hope, chose who we thought would be best for the event, and were able pull through,” said Lyle.

Lyle’s sentiments were echoed by Hynes.

“The tie-breaking round was really exciting and nerve wracking because we wanted to win!”

At nearly a photo finish, senior Chris Garritano crossed the finish line for a Horan Hall victory.

“Anyone who wasn’t racing was lined up along the sides and cheering their teammates on and we just had such a great team energy,” said Zarzecki.

All students in attendance were invited to eat cake as the Horan team was awarded their trophy, which was 3D printed courtesy of the engineering department.

As students began to leave, they all shared congratulations and remarked about the fun of the event.

“A lot of students loved it! Everyone was constantly smiling, cheering on their peers, and being supportive of one another. The team spirit was really great to see because everyone was coming together for one cause: to win. Students seemed to enjoy all the games and activities that were planned,” said Quinones.

Sammon agreed with Quinones, stating that he was happy to see an event like this brought back to MC during his final year.

“I think the most exciting thing about Dorm Wars was this excitement about something that hasn’t happened during my time at this school. The atmosphere was awesome and the coordinator team really did a great job of setting everything up.”

The next big event for Student Government is Spring Fest on Saturday, April 13. But until then, they will be able to boast about a successful return of Dorm Wars.

“I hope that this is a recurring event every year. This is a great event for my position to work on because of all the connections you make in Residence Life. I hope that in future years, the event becomes larger: having enough students to fill up all the bleachers in Draddy. Hopefully, it continues to grow as the event becomes more popular,” said Quinones.