Right hand blue, left hand syrup

Photo+by+Zach+Brake

Photo by Zach Brake

By Roy York

A game of Twister would not be complete without maple syrup, vegetable oil and 50 pounds of flour. At least that’s what members of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and Alpha Tau Omega fraternity think.

In their annual fall philanthropy event to raise money for juvenile diabetes research, the women of Alpha Gamma Delta hosted “Twist Off” at Haggin Field Tuesday afternoon, and more than 20 teams from UK sororities and fraternities competed in a hot dog eating contest and Twister tournament — with a unique spin on the game.

Three twister boards provided the battleground for the elimination rounds where three or four fraternities or sororities fielded their four-person Twister teams. Two rounds were played on each board, and the last person standing from each contest moved on to the championship match. As players battled, fans surrounded the boards in a cage of bodies and cheered for hard falls and difficult stretches.

The six winners from each elimination round met on a final board covered in syrup, oil and flour. When the contestants took their positions and the first “right foot blue” was called, white powder filled the air.

Streams of syrup stuck to clothes. Feet slipped through oil. A thick batter caked the board and squished between toes. Cheers were met with more syrup, more flour and more mess.

When the flour cleared and the game board had been peeled from contestants, Andrew Joyce, a political science sophomore and member of Lambda Chi Alpha, came out the ultimate winner of the Twister competition for the second year in a row, but said he felt less than clean.

“You know when you’re making a cake?” Joyce said. “Absolutely disgusting.”

Each fraternity or sorority entered one person in a hot dog eating contest where each contestant had one minute to scarf as many hot dogs as possible.

For the women, a three-way tie for first place, with the top eaters shoving down one-and-a-half hot dogs each, left no clear winner. For the men, Lambda Chi Alpha’s Pete Ostling, a pre-pharmacy sophomore, crammed four hot dogs to take the win.

“Slow and steady is the way to go,” Ostling said.

Sarah Ausmus, a philosophy sophomore and Alpha Gamma Delta philanthropy coordinator, said each team donated $25 to compete.