More than pride on the line

With their teams struggling to accumulate Ivy League championships, Penn athletes combined forces for a greater cause at the Pride Games on Hill Field Sunday - and still didn't come away with first place.

That honor, along with a celebratory ice cream party, went to Team Philadelphia, which was comprised of board members of the Federation of Gay Games.

"We're delighted and kind of surprised," team member Rick VanTassell said of the win.

The Games were part of QPenn, an annual student-pride and -awareness week run by the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender center.

Pride Games are sponsored by Penn Athletes and Allies Tackling Homophobia. The event - a field day of competitions for members of sports teams and the LGBT community - is used to facilitate communication and fun between the two communities.

This was the second year that Pride Games have been included in QPenn, and the event has more than doubled in size, according to Anna Aagenes, a junior on the Penn women's track team and co-chairwoman of PATH and the Queer Student Alliance.

It was easier to recruit people this year, she added, because of PATH's growth in size and the positive response from last year's games. The Student Athlete Advisory Committee also invited Aagenes to speak at a meeting in order to advertise the games.

"We've been getting an incredible response from people," Aagenes said.

Seventeen teams participated, representing such groups as Penn women's soccer, Penn AIDS Awareness, men's track and "Team Philadelphia."

There were six events: a three-legged race, an egg toss, boat races with Kool Aid, a push-up contest, an eating contest with Twinkies and a drag race.

Aside from the ice cream party for the winning team supplied by Cream & Sugar, the top three teams all received free meals from Chipotle and all participants received a $3 gift certificate to Campusfood.com.

Men's track, last year's champions, were the runners-up and women's basketball came in third.

Though men's track was committed to winning a second year in a row, they were content with second place.

"What it comes down to is we had a fun day and we supported PATH," said self-proclaimed team captain Jim Foreman.

Junior Dennie Zastrow, the chairman of Lambda Alliance - the umbrella coalition for LGBT groups at Penn - said he believes Pride Games are the perfect way to end QPenn because they unite "some of the most disparate groups on campus."

Nothing illustrates this better than the image of Games host and performer Michael Noto, a manager for Penn Dining and female impersonator under the stage name Skyanna Blue, directing the participants - athletes, adults and students alike.

"They're against homophobia, so I'm all for it," Noto said of the Games.

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