Students are gearing up for the last day of Spring Spirit Week after attending Palo Alto High School’s relay race rally during lunch today at the Viking Stadium.

Although today’s spirit event was the only rally this week, students were still able to enjoy participating in other Spring Spirit activities, including competing in best-dressed contests and listening to Quadchella performances.

The rankings of today’s rally took students by surprise, as the freshman class won first place, juniors came in second, seniors placed third and sophomores last. Each class had four relay race participants who took turns stacking cups, running across the football field with sponges to fill up cups, tossing water balloons and racing across the track lanes on scooters.

According to freshman Areet Rao, she was not expecting her class to win, but was surprised by the outcome of the race.

“I’ve never seen a freshman team win out of all four [classes],” Rao said. “I thought we were going to lose but we ended up winning. This time everyone went all in.”

Rao said she enjoyed attending the rally, as she was able to bond with her classmates through teamwork.

“It [the rally] brings up the Paly spirit, it gets everyone together, and you can make tons of new friends here,” Rao said.

Associated Student Body Treasurer Vivian Trach said that she was disappointed at the student participation in today’s rally. 

“I think turnout could’ve been better,” Trach said. “It was kind of sad seeing the stands empty.”

Sophomore Briar Dorogusker shared a similar sentiment, as she said if more of her classmates had attended the rally, it would have made a difference in the final rankings. 

“Our stands did look pretty empty, which was a little disheartening, but you can’t win them [the races] all,” Dorogusker said. “I think that if we were to do it again, I would hope that more people would show up.”

ASB sophomore class president Julian Hong said he sees the turnout as an opportunity for improvement. 

“I’m not that concerned or disappointed with the turnout,” Hong said. “This is our first-ever Spring Spirit Week, [and] there’s always room to grow. I’m incredibly proud of everyone on ASB for planning this week,” Hong said. “Going forward, we learned a lot about publicity, and getting out the word earlier could help. We’ll definitely innovate and come back stronger next year.”

The Spring Spirit festivities will close out with a final best-dressed competition for the outfit theme “Paly Spirit,” followed by the final Quadchella performance during lunch tomorrow on the Quad.