Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Teams compete in snowy race
By Dan Kaplan
Daily Orange (Syracuse)
02/25/2008

(U-WIRE) SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Teams from all over the Syracuse campus, from fraternities to student government to a team known simply as the "Texas Tea-baggers," came to Walnut Park this weekend for one odd reason - to do their best impression of a sled dog.

With a small, but dedicated audience of either extra team members or simply passersby, the annual human sled dog race took place at noon on Saturday. The Student Association staff took first prize in this year's competition.

"It was thrilling," said Natalie Clay, a sophomore in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. "It's better than a roller coaster. There's snow flying in your eyes and your mouth, and you just can't control it. I loved it."

As one of the primary events for teams competing in the new Carnival Cup Competition - a new aspect of the Winter Carnival that awards prizes to groups who have the most success at this year's events - the intensity and level of competition at the race was a step above previous years.

"It's becoming a tradition," said Darryl Patteson, Competitions Chairman for Winter Carnival. "People have picked up on it, and it's been a lot of fun every time we do it."

Teams competing in the race chose up to five people to participate. Each team had as many as four people pulling one group member sitting in the plastic sled. The course was simply a straight shot down, around a cone at the end of the track and back to the starting line. Each team had two attempts at the course, with the best time of the two used in competition's final results.

The Student Association team won the competition with a best overall time of 16.97 seconds, despite receiving a 10-second penalty on its first run.

Recent pledge classes from fraternities such as Phi Kappa Psi and Tau Kappa Epsilon were also well-represented, with Phi Kappa Psi receiving second place honors with a run of 17.22 seconds.

"Keeping our man in the sled was one of the hardest things," said Thomas Hautmann, a team member and freshman broadcast journalism major.

A team known as the Trophy Casers won third place, with a time of 17.94 seconds, followed by the Psi Upsilon fraternity in fourth place with 18.25 seconds. The last team to earn bonus points was the Fairies, who finished in fifth at 18.65 seconds. Overall, seven teams participated in the competition.

After an afternoon full of thrills and spills, Patteson and the rest of the staff were more than satisfied.

"I think it went great," Patteson said. "It was short and sweet. We were out in the cold there a little longer than we wanted to be, but I think everyone that came had fun."

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