The words “win and “whine” are seperated by only two letters, but  they complement each other so well when it comes to competing.

Competition is fierce in the world, but in the ISU greek community, it is everything.

“Winners get the right to boast and brag about getting a shirt,” said senior Lindsey Lamair, member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. “And too often the people that lost whine and pout.”

In the greek community, making a name for the house is a way of showing the campus and new recruits which is the more “prominent” house. Of course, there are other factors besides sports, such as grades, community service and individual members, among others.

However, having the intramural champion shirt just adds bonus points.

“I think it shows chemistry, work ethic and involvement with each other in the house,” said junior Lauren Grogan, member of Delta Delta Delta sorority.

Both Grogan and Lamair were on the same swim team that won the freestyle relay. Lamair also has won the 50-freestyle, medley-relay and 200-free relay in her freshman year.

“It is a fun thing to do and made our house look more appealing,” Lamair said.

Homecoming brings competition in sports with the greek community.

There are several Homecoming events that make up the competition, and in the sporting section, fraternities and sororities compete in such sports as dodgeball, wiffleball and basketball. The teams are usually made up of two fraternities and one sorority.

“It makes the games more interesting because you have to work as a team with people in different houses, and you are playing against people you know,” said junior Dave Desimone, who was part of the wiffleball team that won. “There is just a high level of competition and emotion when it comes to greek vs. greek.”

Something unique to Iowa State’s Homecoming and greek community is a competitive cheering event, also known as “Yell Like Hell.” This is a more structured event with specific practice times.

“You don’t want to be the person stuck alone in your room mad and pouting because you didn’t make it past the first cut of ‘Yell Like Hell,'” said Anna Witt, co-chairwoman for “Yell Like Hell.”

Although competition is intense when greeks go head to head, freshman Ben Anderson, who hit the game-winning shot for his fraternity team in the championship game in intramurals last year, put it this way: “I am a competitive person, but when it comes to my fraternity versus another fraternity, I feel like I am in the … Olympics, and my fraternity is my country. And I never let my country down.”