The Paly quad raged with spirit today as each class presented its loudest cheers and best competitors for the first time this year. With the seniors dressed in 80’s attire, the juniors in hippie clothing, the sophomores in fiesta garb, and the freshman dressed as jailbirds, Spirit Week officially began.
Spirit commissioners, Brigid Hurn-Maloney, Ryan Giordano, and Alexis Medina led the lunch rally, which consisted of two major competitions: the twinkie and saltine races.
Students gathered around the two bleachers on the quad, which were allocated to juniors and seniors, while freshman and sophomores stood on the grass.
The first competition was the Twinkie race, in which a boy and girl representative from each class were required to eat as many Twinkies as they could. Juniors were the only class to clear their plate, eating eight Twinkies in one sitting. Behind the juniors were the freshmen, leaving the seniors and sophomores tied for last place.
With the classic cheers of "Underclassmen" and "Four more years," the rally continued with the juniors and seniors receiving the most points on cheers. The sophomores came in third and the freshmen last.
The freshmen class president, Christine Chang was optimistic however.
"I think it’s going great right now, it’s all coming together and everyone’s really excited," she said.
The second competition was the classic saltine relay, in which three members of each class were each supposed to eat five saltines, whistle, and then run back so the next teammate could go. The seniors triumphed followed by the juniors, sophomores, and finally the freshmen.
The last competition was the "best dressed" competition, in which each class had a representative for their grade stand up in front of the bleachers and the grade that cheered the loudest would win. The juniors won, followed closely by the seniors. The sophomores came in third, with the freshman scoring yet another last place finish.
With a successful first day, both the student body and spirit commissioners feel confident that this Spirit Week will continue to achieve the enthusiasm it has in the past.
"At first I didn’t see any spirit but I think we’ve got some pretty good themes going on," junior Jake Briskin said.
Still there are a few decisions to be made about how Spirit Week will be judged as the judges have not decided whether or not they will be giving points for class dress.
After the first day, juniors are in first with 275 points, seniors in second with 192.5 points, freshmen in third with 150 points, and sophomores trailing with 112.5 points.