Alpha Gamma Delta breaks losing streak in Tugs

Jason Howell

Analicia Haynes, Administration Editor

The bitter, finger-numbing cold was no match for the Greek competitors Monday afternoon as they faced each other for the first round of Tugs.

Separated by the Campus Pond, the teams squared off on opposite ends of the pond and tried their luck at a tug-of-war, pulling at least three members of the opposing team into the murky pond water.

Thunderous cheers and roars echoed from the crowd that surrounded the teams as they took their place alongside the rope.

Two sororities, Delta Zeta and Alpha Gamma Delta, and two fraternities, Sigma Pi and Sigma Nu, teamed off against each other.

Sigma Pi and Alpha Gamma Delta took the victory for the first round of Tugs.

For the first time in 11 years, Alpha Gamma Delta made history and won a match with only nine members out of the ten they started with.

Jacqueline Spaniol, one of the three coaches for the Alpha Gamma Delta team, said her they had been conditioning since the beginning of February in the hopes that they would win a single Tugs round.

“Now that we finally won our first Tug, it is safe to say we are all hoping we can make it all the way to Saturday,” Spaniol said.

Spaniol, a senior this year, said she has been tugging since her freshman year and her sorority has never been taken seriously when it comes to Tugs because it has been so long since they have had a victory.

“Winning today was the fairy tale ending to my senior year,” Spaniol said.

Spaniol said she has been thinking about tugging for months.

“(I have been) thinking about how incredible it would be to go out there and show everyone how much Tugs means to not only me but my entire team,” Spaniol said.  “To show everyone that we should be taken seriously and that Alpha Gamma Delta is always here to put our best foot forward.”

Jake Olson, one of the other coaches for Alpha Gamma Delta, said winning was absolutely amazing and the girls deserved it.

Elizabeth Dyche, the front tugger, said all of the team’s hard work and late nights spent practicing all came down to the moment before they won.

“We wanted to prove ourselves and we did it,” Dyche said. “We never gave up, we pushed through it and I couldn’t be more proud.”

Although Dyche started the team off strong leading them for the first half of the four-minute tug, she lost her footing and the officials said both her hands left the rope.

That is when Peyton Scholl, a sophomore pre-nursing major, stepped up to the plate.

“We were honestly ready to give up,” Scholl said. “But you could hear every single person cheering for us, not letting us give up.”

Scholl was an inch from the water when the crowd began rooting for the sorority, telling them to not give up and giving them the motivation they needed to take a step back and eventually win the tug.

“You could honestly just give up or throw all of your weight back and see what happens,” Scholl said.

Dyche said the team could not have pulled through without the support from their friends and sorority sisters who cheered them on every step of the way.

“It was so intense,” Dyche said.  “That’s just what helped us get through all exhaustion and pain.”

The girls from Alpha Gamma Delta said they will continue to practice in order to make it to Saturday’s finals Tugs competition.

Scholl said the team practices with the Sigma Phi Epsilon Tug team, which helps her team focus on areas such as strength and resistance.

“As soon as the Tug ended today, we headed back to the practice field and were on the rope again preparing for Wednesday,” Spaniol said. “Now that we have the momentum of our first win behind us we want to keep pushing to the end.”

 

Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or achaynes@eiu.edu