Greeks dance and flip through Airbands competition

Sororities and fraternities at West Virginia University danced it out in the Airbands competition Thursday with team Alpha Phi, Kappa Sigma and Phi Sigma Kappa winning.

Airbands is a physical competition among the sororities and fraternities at WVU that is part of the Greek Games, said Beth Clifford, a member of Delta Gamma sorority.

Participants showed off their dance moves, tossed girls in the air and flipped for the competition among the WVU Greeks.

"It's great to see everyone get together and participate. This event had a great turnout, and the routines were great to watch," said Scott Zen, a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon.

Each sorority and fraternity on campus was grouped into teams of two or three houses with six members from each house competing on the team, Clifford said.

This year, the teams were assigned to cities, such as Chicago, Las Vegas and New Orleans, and had to represent those cities in their routines, she said.

Alpha Phi, Kappa Sigma and Phi Sigma Kappa won with their routine that represented Washington, D.C.

"The themes are a really good addition to Homecoming Week," said Rusty Tucker, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon who's theme was Vegas.

"It really gives us a chance to be expressive," he said. "We came up with some great stuff for this event."

Delta Gamma's team represented New Orleans at Airbands, Clifford said.

"We wanted to bring it back with Ray Charles and Rue Paul," she said. "Airbands is extremely fun to participate in."

The teams practiced their routines regularly for the past two weeks, Clifford said.

Airbands is "intense," said Tommy Huggins, a member of Beta Theta Pi, who said they rehearsed nightly on the Mountainlair Green.

It's a lot of hard work to put together a routine in a short period of time, Huggins said.

"It is time consuming. It is definitely intense, but it's still a good time," said Benjamin Schwartz, a pledge at Phi Delta Theta.

The sororities and fraternities have also competed in a T-shirt sale to benefit WVU's holiday toy drive, a blood drive and the WELL WVU Condom Caravan this week.

At each event, the Greek organizations receive points based on their participation, and at the end of the week, the sorority and fraternity with the most points receive a trophy.