For over a week, members of the Salisbury University community participated in the 29th Annual Gull Games, in which students from different residence halls competed in various outdoor and indoor games. On May 4th, 2024, the Manokin-Pocomoke-Wicomico (MAPOWI) team was announced victor, with a total of 2,375 points.

Daniel Stepcic, an SU senior majoring in English, served as captain for the Seagull Square team.

“There’s two captains for each building, I’m one of them, and pretty much the captain’s job is to show up to as many games as possible, cheer on not just your own building, others in general, but also try to prioritize your own building,” Stepcic said. “I’ve signed up for a lot of games, my name’s popped up on the list a lot, so they sent me an invitation [for captain] and I took it.”

Stepcic’s team won Battleship Canoe, one of several competitive games, by employing a strategy through which the largest member sat in the middle of the canoe to block incoming buckets of water and balance the boat, while three others rowed and splashed water into opposition canoes.

On May 3, one of the final days of Gull Games, students participated in multiple board games such as Checkers, Connect4, Jenga and Hungry Hungry Hippos.

“Jumbo jenga, I feel like that’s always fun,” Stepcic said. “For Connect4, I know a little bit of strategy, I took like a free half hour I had before I came here to search up tactics for how to win, because Connect4’s technically a solved game, but you know, I’m an English major, not a Math major, so I don’t know all that formula stuff.”

Zion Powell, an SU Freshman majoring in Meterology, decided to compete in Checkers, a game that he enjoys, for the Severn Hall team. He signed up through an event that was hosted in the lounge of his residence hall.

“I lost, I lost, but you know it’s alright,” Powell said. “I showed up for my team, it was a close game.”

Riley Bruce, an SU Sophomore who is currently a Resident Assistant at Pocomoke Hall, helped organize and plan for some of the Gull Games this year.

“So I was here participating last year as a freshman, and this year I’m on the other side of it helping organize, run it, and just participate and help out where I can,” he said.

“It’s been fantastic, I have had a great experience just working with fellow staff members from across multiple buildings, [I] haven’t gotten to run into them a lot since training, so it’s a great way for us to do some staff bonding, and whenever there’s openings we participate a lot in the games ourselves.”

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By COLIN McEVERS

Editor in Chief

Featured image courtesy of Colin McEvers