Augustana’s annual Homecoming concluded on Sunday, Oct. 16 with the return of alumni. The theme was “Welcome to Hollywood,” and students participated in activities coordinated by the Office of Student Life (OSL).

“Homecoming is a celebration of all the student groups we have here in Augustana,” Homecoming co-chair junior Jared Slusher said. “It’s a time for student groups to spend time with not only the people in their group, but with the people around them, the alumni and the rest of the Augustana community as well.”

Tuesday, Oct. 11 marked the first competition: Regatta Race. Each group designed and built their boats and raced on the Slough. Augustana’s Physics and Engineering Society (APES) defended their title. 

“The boat regatta is a great opportunity for non-Greek organizations like us to participate in Homecoming, “APES President, sophomore Feven Ferede said. “I’m proud of our members for doing their best and winning the race.”

The Phrig competition and Rope Pull took place on Wednesday. A unique Augie term, a “phrig” is a bed sheet a student group paints on. 

Students voted for their phrig to win based on how closely it related to the theme of ‘Welcome to Hollywood.’ The Delta Chi Theta sorority’s (Dchi) phirg took first place. 

This year’s Rope Pull fraternity champion was the Phi Omega Phi (Poobah), while Chi Alpha Pi (CAP) came in first among sororities. 

“It’s really interesting to participate in Homecoming as a member of a Greek group, because I wasn’t a part of it last year,” Chi Alpha Pi member Liz Orgaz said. “I’m looking forward to future events.”

The Zeta Phi Kappa (Zeta) sorority’s victory in one Rope Pull round surprised many people, including its members and the Zeta President, senior Lauren Pillion.

“Our sorority is a smaller sorority, so people consider us less of a competition,” Pillion said. “Victory gave us a confidence boost to move forward as a sisterhood.”

The Augustana Step team performed in place of Yell, which was canceled a few weeks prior due to concerns with cultural appropriation. Sophomore Aniyah Davis said this was an opportunity to take back the narrative of Step and Yell. 

“We are teaching people about the origin of what we do,” Davis said.

First-year Eliseo Munoz, after seeing the events, said he is considering rushing.

“The Rope Pull was exciting, and the Step team absolutely conquered the stage. I’m definitely thinking of joining a group to get to participate in the events,” Munoz said. 

The last competition, Sing, took place on Thursday, when each group selected a few songs they liked, rewrote the lyrics to connect to the Homecoming theme, and then performed it with their own choreography.

The Rho Nu Delta Fraternity (Roundel) took the first spot in Sing with a medley of 80s and modern music.

“We worked so hard on our routine, the timing, the coordination, to the point it became muscle memory,” Roundel’s Sing co-chair Caleb Conard said. “It will go down in history as one of the best Roundel Sing routines, and I’m truly proud of our boys for putting in so much effort into it.”

Sophomore Kelly Moore, Zeta’s Sing Co-Chair, said Zetas also gave it their all.

“Despite having fewer members than other groups, our sisterhood strength truly bonds us together, and we came on stage and put out the best performance we could,” Moore said. “I hope we have shown people our effort and commitment to always try our best in doing anything.” 

On Thursday, Roundels were crowned homecoming champions.

“Everything truly paid off, and despite not taking first place in everything, our participation, the hearts and souls that we put in all of the activities is what made it happen.” Conard said.