As students packed the gym, faculty and leadership students tried to settle everyone down at the Jan. 13 Battle of the Classes.

“I am excited about going to the Battle of the Classes. I only got to go my freshman year because last year my R5 class didn’t raise enough snowmen,” junior Samuel Shin said.

At the beginning, there was some rivalry between the junior and senior classes. It looked like a close race between the upperclassmen, but the sophomores soon caught up with the juniors in a tie.

The first challenge was to slide under the legs of a row of chairs. The next part of the relay race was to run across the gym in flippers. There was also bobbing for apples, getting pied, being fed like a baby. The seniors were given a break and leadership students let them substitute their flippers for floaties. There were many ‘boo’s from the other classes about it.

Even many of the seniors felt this was blatant cheating.

“It was totally unfair how they got something easy. It’s the same as if they cheated, totally unfair,” senior Juhee Chang said.

The next activity was Tug-o-War. When it came down to the final match, seniors vs. freshmen, the upperclassmen pummeled the 9 graders.

“The senior group is mostly boys and they are definitely well-built boys. I knew that they were going to win against the freshies. There were like three girls on the team.” junior Sharmin Rahman said.

The next activity consisted of sponge bathing. Although it did take a bit of time, the participants were laughing the whole time.

“It was very fun, but I think they should have picked a better activity to do like water balloons, or something that requires more teamwork,” senior Kida Gizaw, who participated on behalf of the 2012 class, said.

Other activities included a freshman versus senior dance battle.