When Borpe came in first place at the Rock Rally that took place Friday night, students chanted the names of members as they came out from backstage, and the night closed out with cheers and applause.

The Rock Rally is one of the many events before homecoming to hype students up for the game. It's an event in which the residence hall communities compete with one another via lip syncing and dance routines. It is also where the Maroon Ambassadors are recognized and the Gold Ambassador is crowned.

The event was hosted by Tim Otteman, the department chair of Recreation and a professor on campus who has been hosting the event for seven years now.

"I haven't screwed it up bad enough yet that they tell me no, so they keep inviting me back," he said.

The event was also co-hosted by Jacey Rezmer, a freshman on campus. The two hosts kept the crowd entertained with frequent quick changes in between acts, starting the show dressed as Dorothy and the Tin Man and ending it dressed as Superman and Batman.

Otteman also told 'dad' jokes in between acts, something he has done every year when hosting the event.

"I run them by my daughter first," he said. "If she thinks they're bad, I use them."

There were six contestants:

SHC (Saxe, Herring, and Celani)
FEW (Fabiano, Emmons, and Woldt)
Swerrill (Sweeney and Merrill)
Borpe (Beddow and Thorpe)
Original Towers (Troutman, Carey, and Cobb)
Towers Additions (Campbell, Kessler, and Kulhavi).

Additionally there were six judges for the competition, who were judging based on creativity, choreography, spirit, energy, and timing. Andrew Wittbrodt is a senior at Central and one of the judges for the event, and it was his first time doing so.

"It's fun to see what everyone comes up with," he said. "It's nice to see them all coming together to have fun for homecoming weekend."

The theme this year was Hollywood, something reflected in the music the acts used. Many groups used mash-ups of older songs that progressed into newer music, such as Borpe and Original Towers starting with "Singing in the Rain" and progressing to songs from Pitch Perfect and Barbie.

Some groups even went as far as incorporating the theme in the storyline of their performance, such as SHC's recreation of the end of Shrek 2 and Swerrill's display of the SGA Writer's Strike, a strike in Hollywood this summer where writers and actors refused to create new movies until they were given fair wages and protections from AI.

Additionally, various RSO groups performed in between the residential communities. These groups were all musically oriented, such as Ballet Folkloric de la Luz, Fish n' Chips acapella group, Infusion Dance Team and Club Hip-Hop.

Before the winners of the Rock Rally were announced, the Maroon Ambassadors made their way to the stage and were acknowledged for their accomplishments. These ambassadors were Gabriela Terrones, Jeel Patel, Ashley Harvey, Ku'Juana Quinn, Sophia Scarnecchia, Sarah Gum, and Carolina Hernandez Ruiz.

Courtney Boyd

Ku'Juana Quinn posing onstage after the Rock Rally. Quinn was crowned Central Michigan University's Gold Ambassador for 2023.

Dylan Baker, the Gold Ambassador for 2022, was the one to announce the winner and pass the crown onto her. This year's Gold Ambassador was revealed to be Ku'Juana Quinn, a senior who has been working hard to get to this point.

"It feels unreal," she said. "To me it feels like this means I made an impact at CMU."

Swerrill community came in 3rd place, the Original Towers community (Troutman, Carey, and Cobb) came in second place, and Borpe came in first place for the competition.