Karaoke, tug of war and an insane amount of slime; those three things together can only mean one thing: Clash of the Classes is back! On August 25-26, Northwestern students came together for two days of friendly competition between the classes. The classes were given points based on participation or placement in various events. Points were totaled over the weekend to determine which class was this year’s ultimate winner.
Events kicked off on the 25th with a karaoke night that was held at Pizza Ranch. Several students showed up from each class, and the sophomores quickly ran away with the lead. The rest of the events took place on Saturday.
It was an action-packed day that included musical chairs, a giant trike race, ribbon dancing, tug of war, dunk tank trivia, ball pong, a pie-eating contest and a banana relay race all before dinner time. Some memorable moments were the juniors winning the tug of war, dunk tank trivia being called a tie between the freshmen and sophomores after a quadruple overtime and Lincoln Siebert losing to his teammate, Liam Nibbelink, in the pie eating contest.
After these events and an outdoor dinner came the slime fight with 1,000 gallons of slime and quadruple points to be earned. The juniors walked into the slime fight winning by roughly 300 points before squaring off in a four-way stare down. Not every class had the same amount of representation, so the freshmen were like a tiny army, while the seniors had only ten competitors. This prompted an example of sportsmanship towards the end of the slime fight.
The freshmen won by being the first to fill their tank full of slime, followed by the sophomores. Both classes then collectively decided to help the seniors battle for third place. Sophomore Colton Vargas, a football player for NW, expressed his respect for the seniors. “Just like in sports, I think it’s all about learning from them. They’ve been around the block a few times, and they know what it takes to be successful,” said Vargas.
The sophomores’ success in the final event of the competition pushed them ahead of the juniors. Ultimately, the sophomores won the weekend followed by the freshmen, juniors and seniors in second, third and fourth place respectively. All participants celebrated by going down the giant slip-n-slide.
This year marked the full return of Clash of the Classes to its former glory as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Lucas Heiberger, head of Student Activities Council (SAC), has attended every Clash of the Classes event since 2014. “This year’s Clash of the Classes feels like . . .the old, traditional Clash that I experienced as a student,” Heiberger said. “Now that we’ve had one Clash like this under our belts, I’m super excited for next year when people have a better idea of what to expect, and people get way more excited about it.”
Photo submitted by SAC
