By Sarah Wilder

As students waited expectantly on the ground, more than 3,000 ping pong balls rained down from the top of Patterson Office Tower on Wednesday.

The annual Ping Pong Ball Drop, now in its fourth consecutive year, is the kick-off event to the Student Activities Board’s spring celebration, the Little Kentucky Derby.

“This is a fun event,” said Ben VanderHorst, president of SAB. “You just don’t see 3,000 ping-pong balls falling from the sky every day.”

Students waiting in the POT courtyard were entertained with a variety of events. A balloon-popping relay, a dizzy bat basketball game, a cornhole game, snacks and drinks were all set up to help promote the event.

At noon, a horn sounded and the ping pong balls flew into the air. Students chased the balls as the wind caught  and blew them away. On the ground, it was a mad dash as students grabbed and collected as many ping pong balls as possible, hoping to find one with a logo on it, making them a winner.

Robert Kahne, a political science and economics senior, was among the winners.

“Most students took off running when they dropped, but I stepped back and walked behind them hoping to pick up some stragglers, and sure enough, one of them was a winner,” Kahne said.

This years’ prizes included tickets to the Jason Mraz concert on April 26 and Little Kentucky Derby T-shirts.