Three students participate in the Real Campus Challenge at Eastway lounge, representing their respective dormitories. The challenge included competitive games like Twister. BRIAN MARKS | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: DKS Editors

Students are running back and forth shoving crackers in their mouths as their teammates shout at them from the starting line.

“Chew the food!”

“Swallow!”

The whole scene looks like an episode of MTV’s “Road Rules,” minus the back stabbing and cursing. It’s exactly what Melanie Poinar wanted.

The cracker-eating contest was one of five challenges student teams participated in at last night’s Real Campus Challenge. Kent Interhall Council sponsored the event and five teams participated, each representing different residence halls: Upper Plaza, Lower Plaza, Korb and Leebrick Halls, Fletcher and Manchester Halls and Centennial E and F.

Poinar said the event played off the physical and mental challenges in “Road Rules.”

“The games range from being silly to logic,” Poinar said. “Nothing is too difficult. No one’s ever gotten mad from what I know.”

Teams didn’t know what challenges they would have to do until they arrived. Poinar said this keeps the excitement up and helps students think on their feet.

For the first event, teams had to form a human knot, and for the second, they played Twister.

Next was the cracker-eating contest. Everyone in the team had to eat three Saltines, without water, then blow a whistle.

The fourth game let teams showcase their building and memory skills when they had to build an exact replica of a model house.

For the fifth challenge, teams had to write as many words as they could using six letters they were given.

The final challenge was the tidy team puzzle. Teams had to make a square using the variety of shapes they were given.

The team consisting of Korb and Leebrick Halls tied for first with Centennial E and F. The winning teams had to choose between gift cards from Buffalo Wild Wings, Rockne’s and Hungry Howie’s. All of those who attended received 100 points for their residence hall, and at the end of the year, the hall with the most points wins “hall of the semester.”

Although no team had signed up last week, Poinar said many residence halls signed up at Tuesday’s KIC meeting.

“I was actually really happy with the turnout,” Poinar said. “Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun.”

After winning Real Campus Challenge, Leebrick resident Matt Nagy said he hopes Leebrick and Korb can move up from second place in the competition for hall points.

Fellow Leebrick resident Melody Allison said Leebrick and Korb are very active with KIC this year, and the halls try to have people at every event.

“I think it’s a good feat for us (because) we’re a single dorm so we have to work twice as hard,” said Allison, senior communications major.

Points aside though, Nagy said these events also promote team work.

“It’s a lot of community building,” said Nagy, senior computer science major. “You get to meet people from other halls you wouldn’t usually meet. It’s friendly competition.”

Contact room and board reporter Brittany Moseley

at [email protected].