A week’s worth of hard work culminated on Saturday as Pi Kappa Phi and Alpha Chi Omega were announced as the winners of Homecoming 2012.
Second place went to Kappa Sigma and Alpha Delta Pi. Alpha Gamma Rho and Chi Omega finished in third.
“For me, it was great to see our hard work pay off,” Cason Hewgley, senior in political science and Kappa Sigma’s homecoming chair, said. “Obviously, we wanted to take first place, but I was proud that we won three events and finished second.”
Homecoming week kicked off on Oct. 28 with the banner drop. The banners were displayed all week as they hung on Neyland Stadium.
Throughout the week, participating sororities and fraternities competed in various events and were awarded points based on how they finished. At the end of the week, the group with the most points won.
Events during the week included a three-on-three basketball tournament, “Smokey’s Howl” and a float competition.
“Smokey’s Howl” is a cheerleading competition where members from both the sorority and fraternity put on a routine to music.
“My favorite event is definitely ‘Smokey’s Howl,'” Katie Arnold, senior in nursing, said. “It’s a lot of fun to watch the routines and to see the boys try to cheer.”
Semifinals took place on Wednesday and the finals took place Friday. Kappa Sigma and ADPi won first place in the competition.
The homecoming parade took place Friday afternoon and started off being led by the parade’s grand marshal, Chamique Holdsclaw.
“The parade is my favorite event,” Hewgley said. “We worked really hard on the float and it was great to show off all of our hard work.”
Fraternities and sororities showed off their floats, which were categorized as being in the large float category or small float category. Alpha Gamma Rho and Chi Omega won the large float competition and Kappa Sigma and ADPi won the small float competition.
In addition to announcing the winning fraternities and sororities, Saturday also brought an end to the Miss Homecoming competition.
After going through multiple applications and interviews, the original group of 21 applications was whittled down to the final five.
The five finalists were Katie Arnold, Claire Baker, Chelsea Carter, Brooke Fraser and Becca Keyes.
Carter finished second runner-up, Keyes finished as runner up and Arnold was crowned Miss Homecoming.
“I didn’t expect to win. All five candidates were really great,” Arnold said. “I think what really pushed me to win was Alpha Chi Omega. They were really enthusiastic about it.”
Although the goal of every organization is to win the overall competition, both sorority, fraternity members and homecoming chairs agree, it’s a great opportunity to come together as a university and get to know another group of people.
“The best part about this week wasn’t winning second,” Hewgley said. “It was working with Alpha Delta Pi and getting to know those girls better. We came together to achieve a goal and we finished strong.”
