With a mechanics-inspired routine, women’s social club Phi Sigma scored the top prize at the eighth annual Stompfest on Thursday night in Collins Alumni Auditorium.
Men’s social club Theta Psi received second place with its boy-band stomp, and women’s social club Delta Omega took home third place as “DO Army.”
Morgan Ellison and Ciara McKinney co-directed Phi Sigma’s show, and Katie Markham helped choreograph.
Ellison said the level of competition among all the clubs was incredible this year, and that she felt very proud Phi Sigma came out on top.
“We feel like it’s really long overdue, but especially since over the years, all the teams have gotten so good,” Ellison said. “It’s been such tough competition.”
The annual event featured seven social clubs on campus performing a 10-minute, student-choreographed routine. Student Government Association and The Office of Intercultural Development sponsored the show.
Other clubs that participated in Stompfest included: Delta Sigma’s “Firefighters,” Phi Nu’s “Shipwrecked,” Pi Delta’s “Candy Shop” and Sigma Iota Delta’s “Barbershop.”
On Wednesday night, the clubs performed for a “Family and Friends” show, and on Thursday night, a guest panel of judges was brought in for the second performance. The winners were chosen based on the stomp choreography, theme of each club’s group and audience participation.
Markham, one of Phi Sigma’s choreographers for the award-winning stomp, said she was proud of how hard everyone on the team worked to get there.
“I’m ecstatic,” Markham said. “Very thrilled, very proud. Everyone on the team worked really hard. We put in a lot of hours of practice, and I’m just really proud.”
Markham said the way that Phi Sigma came up with the idea of having a “mechanics” theme was interesting.
“We had several ideas in place — what’s creative, and what can we do that hasn’t been done before? And somehow mechanics just came up because somebody heard a song about a car and was like, ‘What if we did mechanics?'”
Ellison said that it’s hard to describe how excited she was upon hearing Phi Sigma being called out as the victors.
“The fact that we actually won this year and redeemed ourselves is really such an incredible feeling,” Ellison said. “There are really no words to describe it. We’ve worked so hard for this.”
Photos by Sarah Johnson