Catharine Kendall Emerald
Senior fine arts major Brennan McCommon fright) and senior japanese major Bruno Kamps practice push-ups.
By Lisa Toth
Oregon Daily Emerald
Drop and give me 20!
While some people
spend their early mornings
sleeping through class or
eating Frosted Flakes, oth
ers hit the floor for the
weekly push-up contest in
the weight room at the
Recreation Center.
Every Wednesday
morning from 8 a.m. to
8:45 a.m., some 20-odd
students, faculty and com
munity members come to
test their abilities. This free
competition, which began
three weeks ago, is under
the direction of sopho
more and international
studies major Wes Hare,
the judge and inventor of
the contest.
“I came up with the idea for the
contest while betting my room
mates for money that I could dou
ble the number of push-ups they
could do,” Hare said. The weight
room is slow in the morning so
Hare wanted to do something to
grab student interest. Hare said the
push-up contest serves as a great
“ outlet for self improvement. ”
The rules, defined by the Offi
cial Guinness General Sports
Record Guidelines and Hare are as
follows: A push-up must be con
tinuous, with the participant’s
body straight and lowered until at
least a 90-degree angle at the el
bow. Contestants compete in the
event one at a time to proceed offi
A weekly contest was created by a
University student to get people in the
Rec Center doors and spark some
friendly competition
cialiy and with good rorm.
The most recent contest on Feb.
9 attracted a diverse group of par
ticipants. Bruno Kamps, a post
bachelor student studying Japan
ese, beat his first attempt of 60
push-ups with a mark of 61. He
was this week’s male record hold
er.
Jessica Cook, a senior general
science major, was this week’s fe
male record holder. She said she
expected to do 30 but finished
with 41 push-ups.
This was the first time Cook had
ever entered the Rec Center, let
alone the competition.
Senior fine arts major Brennan
McCommon offered Kamps com
petition by completing 56 contin
uous push-ups. McCom
mon stays in peak athletic
shape as a member of the
crew team, running and
taking a weight-training
course offered at the Rec
Center.
Christopher Swain, a
Eugene acupuncturist in
volved with sports medi
cine, saw the sign an
nouncing the contest
when he entered the
weight room on Wednes
day morning. Swain com
pleted 54 push-ups.
“I used to have to do 50
push-ups in Tai Kwon-Do
practice, so I entered out of
curiosity to see how far my
ability has fallen,” he said.
Swain plans to come back
again and attempt to beat
his score.
Future goals for the contest in
clude a “100 Club,” a finger tip
contest and push-ups using one
arm or one finger.
“I would like to see a lot of peo
ple make it into the 100 Club,”
Hare said. He plans to invite the
wrestling team to compete once
the push-up contest becomes
more established and receives
sponsorship.
Molly Kennedy, the Assistant
Director of Operations for Physi
cal Activity and Recreation Ser
vices, helped Hare get the contest
started. She said she supported
his proposal for the program sim
ply because it’s for fun.
“It has been a success so far,”
Kennedy said.
Sigma Chi
continued from page 1A
“But it was worth it. ”
A colony is a part of a fraternity
planning to open a chapter. Now
the colony has created a 50-page
proposal to the national fraternity,
recruited 19 more members and is
on track to officially reopening a
chapter that was closed because of
alcohol and hazing incidents a
few years ago.
Merck said new members were
recruited carefully with an em
phasis on diversity.
“We wanted a very diverse
group of guys,” he said. “We did
n’t want all the same [type of] per
son. That really doesn’t make a
very good house.”
' And current members have no
intentions of following in the foot
steps of their predecessors.
“We only get one chance at this
so we want to do it right and make
sure we give it our all,” Merck
said. “Basically what we start here
is going to be a tradition for years
to come.”
Usually re-establishing a chap
ter on campus takes about three
years, Merck said. But thanks to
members’ academic performance,
which ranked first among fraterni
ties fall term, in addition to per
forming community service
hours, he said he hopes to get the
chapter back faster.
“We are trying to do it in one
year,” he said.
Greek Life advisor Scott Rich
said the Greek community will
benefit from the chapter’s reestab
lishment on campus.
“It’s always nice to have well
established chapters return to
campus,” Rich Said.
He said the colony’s academic
performance shows that the group
of men is serious about doing
things right.
Kevin Dodson, freshman pre
journalism major and the public
relations chair for the Sigma Chi
Beta colony, said the fraternity
house has single rooms equipped
with high-speed Internet connec
tions for all members and is there
fore conducive to academic suc
cess.
“That’s something that from an
academic standpoint is unique,”
Dodson said.
But Sigma Chi Beta members do
not just sit in their single rooms
and study all the time.
“One of the most important
parts of being in the Greek system
is we really want to give back to
the community,” Dodson said.
While the founding members
volunteered 600 hours working at
the Women’s Soccer World Cup
last June, the full group remodeled
some rooms in the St. Vincent de
Paul First Place Family Center in
February.
Dodson said there was a lot of
work to do and the experience was
eye-opening for many members.
Tim Rockwell, assistant direc
tor at the family center said many
groups had offered to volunteer
before, but Sigma Chi Beta mem
bers were the first ones to follow
through.
“When we came in, you could
n’t even recognize the place,”
Rockwell said. “We were just real
ly impressed with all the hard
work that they did.”
Dodson said he hopes such vol
unteer work will help strengthen
the chapter as well as the Greek
system as a whole, especially
when it comes to the negative
stereotypes some people hold.
“The Greek system isn’t just
here to party,” he said. “That’s not
the idea.”
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