Zeta Beta Tau won the first annual Interfraternity Council Lacrosse Tournament with a 4-3 win over Lambda Chi Alpha. The award for winning the tournament, $1000 awarded to the winning team’s charity of choice, was awarded to the Children’s Miracle Network. All six fraternities, Lambda Chi Alpha, Zeta Beta Tau, Beta Theta Pi, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Chi and Theta Chi competed.
The tournament bracket comprised of two different pools. The first pool consisted of Sigma Chi, Theta Chi and Lambda Chi Alpha. In the quarter finals, Theta Chi and Sigma Chi faced off, with Sigma Chi taking a decisive 11-1 win to head to the quarterfinals, where they faced off against Lambda Chi Alpha. Lambda Chi Alpha finished on top, taking a 9-3 win to head to the finals.
In the second pool, Zeta Beta Tau and Beta Theta Pi faced off in the semifinals after Pi Kappa Phi left in the first round. Zeta Beta Tau took a commanding early lead to secure an 11-2 win to head to the finals.
In the finals, Lambda Chi Alpha and Zeta Beta Tau fought through a tight game, with Zeta Beta Tau emerging with the victory in the last few minutes of the game.
“I just want to thank everyone who came out, all the fans. It was great a atmosphere. Amy Rask, the IM Coordinator, she did a great job helping me plan everything, and all the fraternities and the fraternity captains, I couldn’t have done it without any of them,” organizer Alex Frith said. “I wasn’t sure how it would go, with the weather, [but] people wanted to be here to play, the guys wanted to have a good time, and glad we were able to do it; we’re one of the first schools in the country to put this on, and hopefully we’ll do this next year.”
“It was a really cool and fun event. It was really awesome to be able to have an event organized where each fraternity on campus was able to get together and participate to raise money for charity,” Sigma Chi president junior Patrick Barrett said. “Alex did a great job putting all of this together, and we can’t wait to do it again next year!”
Many shared Barrett’s sentiments. Robert Klein, a freshman member of Theta Chi, said, “It was less about each individual fraternity coming together to try and win than the IFC community coming together to have fun and play some lacrosse.” Junior Trevor Waltz, a member of Zeta Beta Tau, said, “Overall, the whole tournament was awesome. I think everyone had a lot of fun. Great atmosphere, great to get back on the field and I feel like there was a really fun and competitive atmosphere.”
Evan Prechodko, a freshman in Beta Theta Pi, said, “To me it felt like a fun way to play again as a lot of the people … haven’t played since high school, so it was a great way to knock the rust off and shoot around with some friends.” This feeling was shared by freshman Quinn Kennedy, a member of Lambda Chi Alpha. “I think it’s built a lot of team spirit and brother spirit for your fraternity and some good healthy competition among the fraternities on campus. And at the end of the day, it’s a fun sport to play and a great chance to donate to a charity of our choice, which is awesome,” Kennedy said before the final game.
Zeta Beta Tau won $1,000 to their charity, the Children’s Miracle Network. Children’s Miracle Network’s goal is to help fill funding gaps created by Medicaid and insurance programs. Carter Fite, a sophomore member of Zeta Beta Tau, said on winning, “When Buzz Aldrin was the first man to step on the moon, I feel like how he felt [was] probably how all of us felt when we won that.”
