2004 Spring Challenge Winners
Spring Challenge Brings Student-Athletes Together
5/26/2004 3:27:49 PM | General
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Football student-athletes attempting to play field hockey, soccer players shooting jump shots, and inflatable obstacle courses were just of a few of sights that could be seen at the 2004 Spring Challenge that took place at the end of April in Manley Field House.
The Spring Challenge, which grew out of the “Do It at the Dome” competition, was created three years ago by Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Services Todd Wyant as a way for student-athletes from different sports to get together.
“It’s really a chance for the student-athletes to meet each other, spend some time together and have some fun,” Wyant said. “The other aspect of it is that it really teaches the student-athletes to respect the sports they don’t compete in. When you have someone like Craig Forth (men’s basketball) trying to play field hockey it gives him or her a different perspective on the difficulty of other sports.”
Nine teams of approximately eight student-athletes from several different athletics teams competed in nine events representing different sports. For example, the first station was the “basketball” event where student-athletes attempted shots from different spots on the floor to accumulate points for their team. The sixth station was the “volleyball” event whereby competitors attempted to serve volleyballs into laundry bins to rack up points.
“We tried to make it as challenging as possible because athletes are competitive to begin with. We wanted them to get a little sweaty, but still have fun with it,” Wyant said.
Scores were kept at each station and the squads with the top four cumulative scores advancing to the second round. In the second round each one of the four teams was allowed to select a station that all four semi-finalists would compete at. The two teams with the highest cumulative scores for those stations moved on the final, which was a side-by-side race through an inflatable obstacle course to determine the Spring Challenge Champion. Teams were selected at random by numbers, which student-athletes received when they signed up.
The squad of Nick Romeo (football), Chris Muldoon (cross country/track & field), Alisha Ricardi (track & field), Christen Casey (volleyball), Thomas Whitfield (football), Paige Sullivan (field hockey) and Chip Gibson (crew) survived the gauntlet of events to be crowned this year’s champions.
After the competition all the participants were invited to a picnic for some hamburgers and hotdogs. Wyant also hired a live DJ for the event and all participants received t-shirts.
“Those who came I think had a really good time and hopefully they pass that on to their teammates, so we can have an even bigger turnout next year,” Wyant said.
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