Students sprinted across campus releasing a semester’s worth of stress Saturday afternoon, racing to win the Olympic title in the final relay event of the day.

Several West Campus students represented their building in various sporting events including basketball, soccer and kickball in Thompson Point’s Olympics.

To conclude the day, participating students joined the relay race. Teams from each building ran around campus on a scavenger hunt; the first group back won the game.

Bailey Hall came in first place for the overall event, followed by Warren and Pierce tying for second place.

Jacob Still, a freshman from Oswego studying history, participated in the basketball event on Warren’s team. Though not coming in first overall, Still said he was proud of his team for winning the championship game for that event.

Still said the event was a stress reliever for students since it is coming to the end of the year and students are overwhelmed with class projects and exams.

“It’s also just a fun activity to build connections between halls through healthy competition,” he said.

Meghan Reeb, a freshman from Kansas City, Mo., studying education and music, was the originator for the idea of the on-campus Olympics.

Reeb wanted to find a way to get involved at the beginning of her freshman year.

Her resident advisor suggested she attended an Area Council meeting to see if joining was something she would be interested in.

“They needed board members for the Area Council, and they were talking about programming chair,” she said. “It’s always been one of my things back home to put on big events.”

She said she received the position and fell in love with it immediately.

The next step Reeb took was to come up with different ideas to keep west campus residents busy.

With a family very involved in sports, friends involved with similar programs at other schools and inspiration from this year’s Winter Olympics, Reeb came up with the idea of hosting an Olympic tournament with SIU students.

“I had come up with the idea while I was trying to figure out how I was going to run for the position in the first place and I ended up latching on to that idea,” Reeb said.

She said the event was a success with about 100 students who showed up to participate in the various games.

Many of the resident assistants helped out and pumped up team spirit for their halls.

Laraine Love, a sophomore from Centralia studying mathematics and RA in Warren Hall, also assisted with the event.

Love volunteered as a referee during a basketball game and other times cheered on her residents as they competed against other halls.

She said she was glad to be able to get students involved and meeting other people out in the sun on such a nice day.

The event was funded by the activity fees paid by students included in tuition, and cost about $500 dollars, Reeb said. This money also helped start up the event so in coming years the price will not be as high.

“We are hoping to make it an annual thing where you can blow off steam at the end of second semester at the Olympics,” Reeb said.

She said these events are a great way to meet more people and for students to work together in a cohesive matter.

“It was nice to have some sort of camaraderie between buildings and between people who live in your own buildings,” she said. “We want to bring a stronger friendship and unity to Thompson Point and on campus.”

Sarah Niebrugge can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter at @SNiebrugge_DE or at 536-3311 ext. 268.