Winning Teams Reflect on Spring Weekend Experience

by April Bayer

The women’s team Throwback to the Future and men’s team Old Farts were announced as the winners of the annual Spring Weekend competition with the theme #CUThrowback hosted by the Student Activities Council. The announcement took place at the Spring Weekend closing ceremony in Weller Auditorium on Sunday, April 24.

Each Spring Weekend team is made up of 12 members, 11 of one gender and one of the opposite gender, who serves as mascot. Members of the women’s team included junior captain Alicia Royuk; juniors Rebekah Brassfield, Hope Colwell, Caitlin Fuehne, Beth Holle, Carlie Mueller, Clara Rich, Megan Suter and Victoria Welter; sophomore Molly Goltl and freshman Hannah Gillet. Sophomore Timothy Mehl served as the team’s mascot.

The story Throwback to the Future members told through their performances focused on a student named Stacey who goes on a journey with a time-travelling council. During their trip, the time machine breaks down, and the group is stuck in a Concordia of the past.  They must then work to fix the time machine and return Stacey to the present.

“The experience itself was even more valuable to us than winning the competition,” Royuk said in an email interview. “The 12 of us entered the team as friends already, so Spring Weekend was an awesome opportunity for us to grow even closer and discover each other’s strengths. At the same time, it was really cool that all of our hard work…resulted in a victory for our team.”

The winning men’s team was made up of all sophomores. Members included co-captains Scott Johnson and Payton DeVencenty, Zach Barz, Nathan Elbert, Jacob Fink, Dillon Hixson, Ryan Olson, Nathan Toenjes, John Vecera and Caleb Worral. Sophomore Corinn Selander served as the team’s mascot.

The Old Farts’ story centered on a group of elderly men from the future reflecting on their college days and attempting to discover why they lost Spring Weekend 2015.

“We’ve really been putting a lot of work into it this season—a lot of training,” Johnson said. “It feels great to have all that hard work finally pay off.”

Both teams met daily, practicing for several hours in the week leading up to Spring Weekend to work on choreography and plan for the competition.

Some of this year’s events included a lip sync, an obstacle course, an eating competition, a tug-of-war, a photo scavenger hunt, a synchronized swimming contest in kiddie pools and a craft competition in which teams created a modern Mona Lisa.

“I especially enjoyed the teams’ overwhelming enthusiasm for the events, everybody’s story lines, all of the Doane references and the slip ‘n slide put on by Team Team at the end of the Sync Swim,” said junior Izaak Wendorff, co-chair of the SAC, in an email interview.

Several Spring Weekend participants agreed that the lip sync was the highlight of their weekend.

“You put the most work into [the lip sync], so when you see it finally come together, it’s the most enjoyable and the most rewarding,” Johnson said.

Memorable moments in the winning teams’ performances included when the members of Throwback to the Future lifted Goltl into the air as part of a stunt and the many costume changes, flips and cartwheels in the Old Farts’ performance.

Another source of entertainment for both participants and spectators was an unofficial team of students in masks and white T-shirts known as Team Team. Some of the group’s antics included throwing water balloons into the crowd during the opening dance, spraying silly string into the audience during the lip sync, and setting up a water slide covered in glitter at the synchronized swimming competition.

The captains of both winning teams encourage students to get involved in future Spring Weekend competitions.

“Even if you don’t want to be competitive, it is a super fun experience and is a great way to get closer with people,” Royuk said. “Make some friends, be goofy in front of large groups of people and create memories that will last forever.”