Seniors reign in homecoming Olympics

The actual Olympics are not likely to have the events of "Hungry Hippo," "Powder Puff Football," or "Crazy Goggle Puzzle" incorporated in its competition, but they made for a fun time on the Plains High School football field Friday afternoon last week.

The events were part of the annual Homecoming Week's Horsemen Olympics, a competition of seven different games between the four high school classes held on the football field. Each event had between two to 14 students and most were a combination of girls and boys and teams that could get one to four points for each event. The classes also received points for Dress Up Days and Class Karaoke & Cheer contests, held earlier in the week.

The seniors were the Olympics victors, which chalked up 52 points in the two and a half hours of competition. The senior king and queen candidates also grabbed the most points for the royalty crown with Mason Elliott collecting 40 votes and Piper Bergstrom getting 65 votes. The king and queen winners were announced at halftime at the football game against the Valley Christian Eagles Friday evening.

The sophomore team finished the games in second place with 35 points. Sophomore Wyatt Butcher received 23 votes for king while classmate Trystan Larsen collected 27 votes for queen. The junior class finished third in the Olympics with 30 points. Junior Nick Hill received 34 votes for king while queen candidate junior Hallie Corbin had nine votes.

"It is a chance for the school to come together and compete in an event older than any of its participants," said Ken Nelson, who has coordinated the Olympics games for 21 years. Nelson said the kids had fun competing on the field and that some of the inter-class grudges were settled at the games. "The seniors in particular, not overly successful in their freshman, sophomore or junior years, decided to draw a line in the sand and worked very well together for a resounding victory," he said, although he added that the sophomores this year were "very high scoring underdogs."

The freshmen king candidate was Beau Crabb, who got 28 votes, while the queen candidate Randie Kilgore took in 24 votes. The freshmen class finished the Olympics last with 23 points, though they nearly took first in the tug-of-war competition, which would have been a first, said Nelson. They took second to the seniors, getting three points in the event. The juniors finished in third with two points and the sophomores last with one point.

In the Hungry Hippo contest, which involved moving water balloons, one at a time, from one place to another. Each time a balloon was delivered, a class member was added to the line until the last of the 14 students dropped off a balloon. The juniors took first, followed by the seniors in second, sophomores in third and freshmen last.

In the Crazy Goggles Puzzle, which involved putting a puzzle together while wearing goggles that simulated being under the influence, the seniors took first, the juniors second, freshmen third, and sophomores in fourth. In the Water-Melon Relay race, the seniors took first, followed by the sophomores, the juniors and freshmen last. The boys volleyball saw the seniors in first, sophomores second, juniors third, and freshmen last. Powder Puff Football - girls football - ended with the seniors in the lead, sophomores second, juniors third, and once again freshmen last.

In the King and Queen Games the king candidate had to don a horse mask and carry the queen candidate, piggyback style, downfield about 20 yards and back. Elliott and Bergstrom took first, followed by Butcher and Larsen in second place, Hill and Corbin in third, and Crabb and Kilgore last.