Sports night taps competitive drive
An evening of friendly, but competitive matches in several sports for about 250 international students was hosted by WMU's Student Recreation Center in late March.
International Sports Night is an annual event coordinated by the SRC’s Intramural Sports Department, offering "tournaments" in ping pong singles, badminton singles and doubles, a whiffleball homerun derby, knockout-21, a 3-point shooting contest, as well as open volleyball, basketball and rock climbing. Competition winners were awarded SRC t-shirts. "We try hard to plan games that are new and exciting for students," said Edward Beven, a WMU graduate assistant, who helped plan the event. "We tried to put a new spin on traditional games. We offered knockout-21 to give students a new way of playing basketball."
The ping pong singles attracted many students to the event, who competed on two tables until there was only one winner. Ashish Mittal, an international student from India, took first place. Badminton was one of the more popular sports of the evening. The doubles tournament heated up the court and after three rounds of play the winners were Chit Nam Li and Wenjia Wu, international students from China.
"I play badminton all the time in China," said Wu. "I was excited to see the Rec Center offer a tournament where I could show off my skills. I wish more students at Western were interested in the sport because it's so much fun." Between the 3-point contest and the knockout-21 tournament, the basketball court was busy most of the night. These contests showed off student’s abilities to make baskets both close range and at a further distance. Ryan Williams took the prize as the best 3-point shooter and Nick Johnson won the knockout-21 tournament. The whiffleball homerun derby gave students a chance to practice their baseball hitting skills indoors. The most homeruns were hit by Jamel Tejeda, an international student from the Dominican Republic. "The SRC staff was very pleased with the turnout at this year's International Night," Beven said. "We saw more than 250 students come out and play. It is our goal to get more students interested in the SRC and the sports we offer." Visit WMU’s Student Recreation Center’s Web site:
http://www.src.wmich.edu/ Listing of International Sports Night winners:
http://www.src.wmich.edu/pdfs/International%20Night/champs.pdf Story by Julia Valentine |
