Hundreds of students gathered at Greater Zion Stadium April 10 for Utah Tech University’s annual Great Race.
The Great Race is a competition that’s part of D-Week, where students form teams of 10 people and compete in a relay race that includes running, swimming, crawling through mud, cycling and more.
The event kicked off with students gathering in 24 teams, with each wearing matching shirts or even full-blown costumes. One team dressed as characters from the movie “Trolls;” another dressed as characters from “Shrek,” complete with painted skin and dyed hair. Many painted their faces and even arms and legs to match their team’s themes.
Participants then filled the east bleachers at Greater Zion Stadium and shouted cheers for their respective teams.
Students then dispersed to their assigned stations across campus, and the race kicked off. Each participant passed a baton to the next team member to progress.
The race began with a lap around the track before the next participant completed a base run and passed the baton to a teammate on a bike, who rode from Greater Zion Stadium to the Snow Math and Science Building. The following contestant attempted a corn hole toss before handing off to a teammate who rode a scooter between buildings. Racers then navigated a swimming pool obstacle course, followed by a participant who answered trivia questions about Utah Tech.
The next competitor slid down a Slip ‘N Slide and pulled themselves the rest of the way using a rope. The next challenge had a contestant crawl through a trough of mud before the last racer sprinted to the finish line back at the stadium.
“It went great,” Diego Lara, a junior exercise science major from Rancho Cucamonga, California, said. He did the cycling part for his team.
“I kept pace, passed three people in the start, and then got smoked by some dude in a white shirt,” Lara said. “He was flying by me — flying by everyone. He even dropped the baton, and he still went past us all.”
The cross country team called Ross’s Army won for the second straight year, finishing the race in just 12 minutes and 20 seconds.
While participants noted that some events were surprisingly easy, like the cornhole toss, others, like the swimming course, were surprisingly difficult.
Maria Molina Lara, a sophomore finance major from St. George, participated in the swimming portion, which involved balancing on floating platforms and jumping between them. She said it was awesome but challenging.
Molina Lara said: “I didn’t think it was going to be hard, because it’s swimming, but no, the obstacles were pretty hard. The platform was really hard to balance on for sure… I didn’t fall off, but it was hard to get to the other one because there was such a large distance between them.”
Aubrey Etheridge, a freshman psychology major from Saint Johns, Florida, said she enjoyed the mud run.
“It was awesome,” Etheridge said. “I got to just get down and dirty in the mud. I overtook someone in the pit. It was lit. It was great to hang out with my friends and just bond with them.”
These students at Utah Tech are glad the Great Race is a tradition they get to be a part of.
“I think it gives people the chance to bond with other people and be a part of a team,” Etheridge said.
“It’s honestly great that they keep doing it because it just brings people together and [forms] new friendships,” Molina Lara said. “I heard so many stories about people just [joining teams last minute], and now they’re all friends, so that’s pretty cool.”
