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The UM Republicans beat out their competition at the Committee of Student Organization’s (COSO) Rumble on the Green on Friday as they worked through a variety of obstacles and tasks to win a $150 cash prize towards their organization.
“It was very shocking, I was out of words,” said Mathew De La Fe, president of UM Republicans. “We put our minds to something, and we did our best. We’re recognized by other organizations that we’re a serious organization.”
Rumble on the Green has been a longtime tradition of field day events, according to COSO involvement chair Kelly Mena.
This year’s events included several obstacle courses. One was a traditional inflatable obstacle course, where at least two runners were injured; another course required participants to carry a beach ball on their back. For the final course, competitors were blindfolded and guided by the voices of their team members.
Other events included transferring a hula-hoop up and down a line of team members, racing to fill up a bucket of water the fastest by passing a sponge down a line and running around campus for a scavenger hunt. Less athletic competitors played rounds of Mad Gab, a word game.
Eleven organizations, including the reigning champion Asian-American Student Association (AASA), came out fighting and trying to win the prize for their respective organization, according to AASA member Ashu Joshi.
“Everyone’s just like gunning for your No. 1 spot, you just got to keep looking over your back … You’ve got to defend your turf,” said Joshi, a senior who served as AASA’s captain of Rumble on the Green. “I know a lot of people here like to have fun, but they also have that competitive edge, and we all keep that in mind since we want to defend our crown.”
Their team lost, however, and the UM Republicans beat AASA for the top spot by just two points.
While Rumble on the Green does instill a sense of competitiveness among the teams, some organizations, like Rhythm Nation, use the event as an opportunity to foster relationships between and within the different student organizations.
“We don’t just want to be a new organization on paper, we want to be active, so this was a good way to start us off,” said Kenthia Farmer, Rhythm Nation’s president, who founded the group last year. “It was a good team building activity as well as a good way for us to meet other organizations.”