Greek houses synchronize swim, splash for charity

Clad in swimming trunks, cropped white T-shirts and fabric knotted around their heads, four members of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity somersaulted into the Health, Physical Education and Recreation pool Friday night to Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)."\n"We wanted to spice up our routine, but we didn't have time to get Speedos," said freshman Joe Mutton, a member of the fraternity's team.\nAnd that was only the beginning of the 90-second synchronized swimming routine that helped the fraternity become victorious in front of a record crowd at Delta Gamma's Anchor Splash. The philanthropy event pitted 14 teams against each other in two relay races and a synchronized swimming competition to raise money for blindness prevention, the sorority's national cause. \n"Every chapter of Delta Gamma does an Anchor Splash or Anchor Days event," said senior Cathy Blumenfeld, Delta Gamma's organizer of the event. "And everything has to benefit the blind. I believe our chapter gives money to the Indiana School for the Blind." \nThe 14 teams were each made up of four members of a sorority or fraternity, with the exception of one team composed of the Delta Gamma house waiters, Blumenfeld said. Events included a lit-candle relay, a wet T-shirt race and a synchronized swimming event.\n"Every fraternity and sorority sponsors a philanthropy event," Blumenfeld said. "So we participate in theirs, and they participate in ours." \nBut competition turned dirty in the candle relay, in which competitors tried to swim a length of the pool with a lit candle and hand it to a teammate without extinguishing the flame. Some confusion surrounded the event, and teams looked to new tactics by splashing at opposing teams' candles. \n"That's the type of stuff that happens in raw competition," Mutton said. \nTwo members of Delta Gamma were assigned to each team to help competitors create a synchronized swimming routine, Blumenfeld said. Seven members of Delta Gamma and the sorority's house mom, who were the judges for the event, held up numbers one through 10 to grade each performance. \n"We graded on four categories: creativity, sexiness, execution and overall effect," senior and Delta Gamma event judge Katie Sexton said. "I think the Delta Gamma waiters will always have a place in our hearts, but the FIJI ninja turtles were also a top performer." \nPoints were also awarded for how many people came to support each team, Blumenfeld said. Mutton said that at least 35 people came out to support Phi Gamma Delta, though Blumenfeld estimated the number at even more than that. Blumenfeld guessed about 130 people attended the event.\n"It's the biggest turnout we've had in a while," she said. \nEach team was charged $75 to participate, while spectators paid $1. As of press time, Blumenfeld could not say how much money the sorority had earned because she was unsure how much the DJ and HPER pool were charging, but the event raised more this year than in recent years, she said. \nLast year, only eight teams participated in the Anchor Splash event. First-time participants in this year's events included Sigma Chi. \n"This year was our first time, but we are definitely going to do it for years to come," sophomore and member of the Sigma Chi team Ryan Anderson said. \nHis teammate, whose stomach was still red from a face-first flop in the pool, had one stipulation however. \n"Only if we cut out the belly-buster," sophomore John Parker Wiethoff said.