On Saturday, April 27, Union University’s Residence Life hosted their annual field day event, which was the final Union Cup event of the year and the final determinant of the Union Cup winner.
Every year, dorm buildings compete through a series of events all in an effort to win the Union Cup at the end of the year, and points are tallied after each event throughout the year.
Field day has three different relays that each building competes in, and those with the best times for completing the relays get points added to their total building score. After points have been accounted for, the top five buildings compete in the championship race.
Before the field day event, each building was placed in a list based on their points from previous Union Cup events: The Cardinals, buildings at the top of the leader board, and The Creamed, buildings at the bottom of the leader board.
One of the interesting features of field day is that the top building of The Creamed can compete with the top 4 teams from The Cardinals. These final five teams competed in the championship race, which determined the winner of the Union Cup.
This year, an exciting turn of events occurred because the winning building, Craig, not only competed in the championship race from the top of The Creamed, but they were also the first ever female building to win the Union Cup.
“I was at the top of the creamed, so I had a pretty decent margin that my building would have a shot at being at the final five,” said Aubrie Brister, a junior nursing major and RA of Craig.
Brister, along with all her residents in the Heritage dorm, were incredibly excited to be the first female dorm to take home the trophy.
“It was so cool to be able to prove that girl buildings can win,” said Brister. “It was honestly just due to my girls. I have an incredible building this year. We were all hyped, and I think that is what made us win, the buy-in all of us had.”
Parker Smith, a freshman elementary education major, will be an RA for the 2019-2020 school year and was honored to be a part of the winning building for this year’s Union Cup.
“I remember when I first met Aubrie, she was explaining the Union Cup, and she said no girl building had ever won,” said Smith. “And I remember thinking, ‘Well that’s got to change.'”
Smith said over the past year, it has been incredible to see how community develops through Res Life events.
“I remember getting [to the first Union Cup event] and not knowing anyone, but through that first event, we had a shared experience that led to building a community for our building,” said Smith.
