Maroon Mania photo challenge
Frantically running around campus, smart phones in hand, students hunted and competed for images.
Students were tasked to fulfill their photo goal list during the annual homecoming Maroon Mania Instagram Challenge, Tuesday.
Registering by giving their Instagram handles to the judges, student photos were scored as they were posted. Each group was given a list of 100 goals to complete, with up to three being allowed per photo.
For each photo, one goal reached was worth one point, two goals reached was worth three points and three goals reached was worth seven points.
“I had to do this because I’m vice president of my hall but other than that, I wanted to do it to meet new people and get involved on campus and show my CMU spirit,” said Kit Skoog, a sophomore from Royal Oak.
Students only had one hour to complete the goal list of 100 photos. The time restraint added some pressure to the competitors, some who had entered the competition determined to win.
“Our hall came in fourth place last year and we want first place this year,” said Nick Gembarski, a sophomore from Harrison Township.
However, not every competitor came with only winning in mind. Samantha McAllen, a senior from Grand Blank, decided to participate in the competition to show her school spirit while teammate Diana Sanchez, a senior from Mount Clemens, admitted to using it as a bonding experience for her sorority.
“This is our way of integrating the Littles to our group, so it’s kind of just bonding and building some good skills together, so that’s why we primarily do it,” Sanchez said.
The teams also had the opportunity to win three extra bonus points by being awarded best campus-based photograph, funniest photograph, most impressive photograph, most scholarly photograph, most spirited photograph, best decades photograph, best squirrel photograph and most dramatic photograph.
Once the hour was up, the groups rushed back to the Finch Fieldhouse to tally up their scores.
“We got quite a few down but it’s not just about getting about that because you get extra points for getting more than one thing in each picture,” said Bridget TimBook, a junior from Ohio. “We started out pretty good at doing that, but after a while, we started doing just one thing at a time because it’s just easier.”
Her team succeeded getting about “three fourths” of the list completed in the hour. They didn’t find the time restraint too restrictive because of the simpleness of some photos, like ‘do a duck face’ and ‘take a selfie’.
“We’re also competing for the Maroon Cup, so we kind of have to get points so that’s why we’re here,” said Stephanie Oldeck, a senior from Tecumseh.
Maroon Mania is one of the competitive events occurring for homecoming week. Students earn points for each event they compete in and at the end of the week. The points are totaled and the winner is announced at Saturday’s football game.
