Despite having a smaller audience than in years past, the steps of Shryock Auditorium came alive with the music of Aretha Franklin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and other musical artists on Saturday afternoon.

Five fraternities and sororities vied to perform the best musical routine at the 15th annual Greek Sing, an Inter-Greek Council sponsored event.

Mike Matthews, an SIUC senior and coordinator of Greek Sing from Pekin, said although attendance was down from previous years, the event was a success.

“With it being the week before Homecoming, that really hurt our attendance. Most parents don’t want to come out two weeks in a row,” Matthews said. “It was good to show the community and parents what greek life is all about.”

Awards were given out to the top three Greek organizations, as determined by a three person judging committee of SIUC faculty. Special awards were also given out to best vocals, best costumes and best group participation.

The big winner of the afternoon was the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. The sorority won best vocals and was awarded first place overall. Sigma Kappa won second place, also winning best group participation.

Finishing in third place was Delta Zeta, which also managed to bring home a trophy for best costumes.

New to the competition this year were the People’s Choice awards. The audience was encouraged to drop loose change in the bags of their favorite Greek organizations. However, any pennies left in a bag would count negatively against the organization’s change total. Results will be announced soon.

Tony Lawson enjoyed the show, even though he was disappointed that his Family Weekend didn’t include football. Lawson made the trek down to Carbondale from Galesburg with his wife and two dogs, Gigi and Dallas. Their daughter, Ashley, is a member of Sigma Kappa.

“The show was good, it was a little hot, but we got around that. Gigi and Dallas enjoyed the show, too,” Lawson said, chuckling.

After the competition ended, an enthusiastic Kim Kurtz, a junior studying Health Care Management from O’Fallon, realized that all the work that her sorority put in was worth it with the victory.

“I was very pleased with the performance, we worked very hard, and I watched the video already. It turned out great,” Kurtz said. “The work really was shown off in the performance.”

Kurtz and the Alpha Gamma Deltas practiced four nights a week for the past month to prepare for the competition. However, the new members did not have much time to learn the routine.

“Our new members really stepped it up. They were just pinned in two weeks ago, and they did what we did in the past month in just two weeks. They really came through for us and helped out,” Kurtz said.

Reporter Jarel Loveless can be reached at [email protected]