The Homecoming tournaments featured new additions and changes this year which helped make them a success.

The tournaments that were held were: volleyball, indoor soccer, flag football, basketball, pool, darts, mini-Olympics and a photo scavenger hunt. The overall winners of the tournaments were: Pi Kappa Phi, Kappa Delta, Alpha Sigma Phi and Acacia.

The tournaments took place in a one- or two-day time period, so it was a quick way to get involved in intramurals. All of the champions won T-shirts.

The co-chairs this year for the tournaments were Laurie Rupe and Doug Scheffler. Rupe, a junior in chemical engineering, felt the tournaments went well.

“It was nice because a lot of the events had extra people,” Rupe said. “They had a lot of participants, and a lot more than what was required came.”

Scheffler, a junior in mechanical engineering, said participation increased this year. He said there were a lot of people on the sidelines cheering on their teammates or waiting to substitute into the games.

“There was also a lot of residence-hall and off-campus participation, which added a new dimension to Homecoming tournaments,” he said.

One new thing this year was that every event was co-ed, whereas last year there were separate men’s and women’s divisions. Rupe said it was a good idea to combine them because that meant the participants had to get to know the other house in their pairings instead of just playing with people from their house or floor.

“Even before the tournaments started we got a lot of positive feedback,” said Rupe. “They liked that we changed everything to co-ed.”

The photo scavenger hunt was also new. The students had to find objects or buildings around campus, and then take a picture of themselves by it. They had to decipher clues to figure out what they had to find.

Rupe said they got a lot of positive comments about the scavenger hunt. Some of the participants came back dripping with sweat because they had run everywhere to find their objects.

“We wanted to do something ISU related,” she said.

One of the participants, Andrea Laug, freshman in pre-advertising, thought it was a lot of fun. Although she dislocated her kneecap, she was still able to participate in the tournaments.

“I really liked it,” she said. “I did it with upper-classmen and they knew where things were at. I couldn’t have done it by myself.”

Her team figured out the clues before they started, and then mapped out the fastest route.

The mini-Olympics were changed this year so the participants competed for points and not just participation. Included in the Olympics was a pie- eating contest.

Julie Kiefer, a sophomore in exercise and sports science, said the pie- eating contest was a huge success. She participated in soccer and thought tournaments were very well- run this year. She was a co-chair for tournaments last year.

“They were very prepared for any situation that could arise [this year],” she said. “There was a lot of time and work put into it, and it was a great success in the end.”

She also said tournaments are a good stress reliever for students having mid-terms. People are involved with them because they are not burned out on school yet.

“People are fired up because it’s the beginning of the year,” Kiefer said. “Their enthusiasm and motivation to play are a lot higher.”

Jesse Arnold, a sophomore in economics, was on the championship team for bowling.

“We had a lot of fun participating this year,” Arnold said. He participated on the Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Gamma Delta and Farmhouse team.

Even with so many participants, Scheffler said they didn’t run into any major problems or conflicts.

“The tournaments seemed to run real smoothly,” he said. He also wanted to thank everybody for their participation and hopes everybody enjoyed homecoming.

“Thanks also to Laurie for being my co-chair, and I hope everybody participates again next year,” Scheffler said.

Rupe also wanted to thank the Cy Squad and said they couldn’t have run the tournaments without them.

“A big thanks to all of those who helped referee [the tournaments],” she said. “All of them did a fantastic job.”