Amid an array of costumes, colors, cheers, and class competitions, Spirit Week kicked off during today’s lunch rally on the Paly quad.

Classmates cheered competitors to victory in an echo of sounds. The first competition of the rally was ping pong ball toss, in which two members of each class tossed a ping pong ball into a cup of water.

Seniors Tess Dalke and Steven Burk took an early lead, but juniors Maya Fielder and Alex Taser helped the juniors take first. Sophomores took second place, followed by the seniors in third place and freshmen in last place.

While the competitors were caught up in the action of the ping pong ball toss, spectators were confused about the competition.

“Everyone is involved,” freshman Terra Jones said. “Everyone dresses up. The game looks interesting, but I am kind of confused about what the object [of the game] is.”

The second game was the pie eating contest, in which one student from each grade had to find three lifesavers in a pudding pie without using his or her hands. Alex Greene, the representative for the seniors, smeared his face with whipped cream and green pudding.

“It [pudding] is in my hair,” Greene said. “I didn’t think I was going to win, but apparently all the other grades suck at sucking lifesavers out of pudding. It feels better to win than to lose.”

In the pie eating contest, juniors Josh Newby and Emily Kenyon scraped second, while freshmen Michael Augustine and Ashley Swendseid took third, leaving the sophomores to fourth.

The third competition was the marshmallow eating contest, in which two students from each year competed. The first student had to completely finish eating a marshmallow before the second student could start.

The first team to finish its marshmallows without its members eating at the same time won. Juniors Henry Jordan and Gracie Dulik helped the junior class take the lead during the marshmallow eating contest with their fast chewing.

Juniors came in first, seniors second, and freshmen third. Sophomores were disqualified for eating the marshmallows at the same time rather than waiting for the first team member to finish, but otherwise they would have taken second place.

ASB members declared the first day of Spirit Week a rousing success.

“[The rally] went really good,” said Kenyon, who is also ASB social commissioner. “It definitely showed the freshmen what Spirit Week is all about.”

This year, the senior class dressed in 90s-style clothing, contrary to last year’s seniors, who dressed in 80s-style attire. It is traditional that, on the Monday of Spirit Week, seniors dress up in fashions from the decade in which they were born.

Senior Bryn Kimura thought that the senior class did a good job transitioning from 80s outfits, which previous classes of seniors wore, to 90s outfits.

“I think we handled it,” Kimura said. “Everyone who dressed up for 90s would have dressed up for 80s.”

The freshman class was awarded points for “Best Dressed” for beachwear, while the juniors in their 70s attire and seniors in their 90s garb tied for the “Best Cheer” competition. Life-guarding sophomores and pajama-clad faculty members joined in the fun at today’s rally.