Freshmen enter trials by FYRE

It's rare that NYU students come together as a community for sporting events.

But yesterday, freshmen gathered for a fierce but friendly competition: the First-Year Residential Experience Olympics.

This year's FYRE Olympics consisted of six events: knock-out, relay race, trivia bowl, Rock Band tournament, banner competition and tug-of-war. Each of the seven participating residence halls had a team made up of 20 or more residents.

"It was just started as a fun competition to bring together all of the freshman residence halls," said Stacy Ulrich, assistant community development educator at Third North residence hall and coordinator of FYRE Olympics. "A lot of times, freshmen tend to interact with each other within their hall and not necessarily reach out to other halls, so it's a good way for people to get to know one another across different residence halls."

Many students said that the event, which NYU's Inter-Residence Hall Council has organized for the past four years, succeeds in bringing their halls together through friendly competition.

"I think it's nice because sometimes you hear how there's not really much of a community for undergraduates at NYU," CAS freshman and Brittany resident Daniel Stone, said.

Some students participated to get to know more people.

"We don't really do a lot of athletic things at NYU, and it's a good way to build a community within Hayden," said CAS freshman and Hayden resident Rebecca Zeidman.

Other students felt more competitive about the events.

"Our primary goal is to win, then community," Stern freshman and Goddard resident Sriram Satish, said. "It was a little tough in the beginning, but we ended up winning."

Although some events were more barbaric than others, administrators were not put off by the aggressive nature of the competition.

"It's sort of a spirit of competition, but I think it's healthy competition," said Rachel Alldis, assistant director of residential life and housing services.

Third North placed first, followed by Goddard, then Hayden and Founders in third place.

"Third North has won the trophy for the last three years, so they [were] the team to beat," Ulrich said.

LSP freshman and Third North resident Chan Lin said that Third North was destined to win from the beginning.

"We run it, so we can win it," she said. "It just happens to be that way, it just happens that we win."

Anna Sanders is a deputy city/state editor.