[img id=”77701″ align=”alignleft”] Snell-Hitchcock edged out the Scav Hunt competition for the third year in a row, trumping teams from Burton-Judson and Max Palevsky at the conclusion of four days of hot dog launching (item 153), covered wagon racing (item 36), and horse grave visiting (item 205).
“The B-J Team has a motto: ‘If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing well,’” said third-year Sarah Staudt, a returning captain of Burton-Judson’s second-place “Ron Paul Presents: Ron Paul’s Ruff Riders.” “I’ve never seen 80-some people have so much fun, and because of that, we did the best the B-J team has done in 10 years.”
Second-year Seth Berlin, a captain of Max Palevsky’s “Dinosaurmaggedon,” said his team was surprised that they came in third place. Max Palevsky’s team typically places first or second.
“The magnitude of our deficit to Snell-Hitchcock was far greater than anyone expected, given how we were feeling before Judgment,” Berlin said in an e-mail interview. “Scav Hunt has been a two-horse race for so long that [having] a third serious competitor jarred us. B-J had a great year, and we certainly had our setbacks; their competition was universally admired by our team.”
According to Scav Hunt Minister of Propaganda and fourth-year Kate Lipkowitz, the judges most enjoyed judging the Showcase Items.
“The vending machines were really neat for us, even though not all of them worked,” Lipkowitz said, referring to item 209, which asked teams to build a coin-operated vending machine that would dispense three other Scav items.
“MacPierce turned their Easter Island head [from item 11] into a vending machine and the stuff came out of the mouth, so that really stood out.”
Staudt said B-J finished their working vending machine approximately 30 seconds before it was judged; they were shocked it actually worked. However, the B-J Ruff Riders’ biggest accomplishment was its “three-feet-by-three-feet push pin mosaic of ‘The Scream,’” Staudt said of item 55.
“If our first-year girls had come to any of the captains to have us approve their idea to do this, I’m sure we all would’ve said it was impossible, so I’m so glad they didn’t,” Staudt said. “They used more than 7,000 push pins and we were all really impressed, as were the judges.”
According to Scavenczar (head judge) and third-year Emily Watkins, the “Scavegon Trail” items were much more successful than the judges had anticipated.
“Seeing five people in colonial costumes bolt around the Linnaeus garden chucking water balloons at equally fleet-footed and surprisingly acrobatic rabbits and bison—members of other teams—was really exciting,” Watkins said.
She said she was especially pleased with the way “Camp Scavvahunta,” this year’s replacement of the traditional Scav party on the quad, proceeded.
“It showed that students can get together in a totally dry context and still have a wonderful time,” Watkins said. “Many people were initially put off by the idea that we had chosen to cancel the party, but we were really concerned that putting on a party like those of the past two years would be way more stressful than fun for both us and for the teams.”
Watkins said the Moai heads “mysteriously” placed outside Cobb Friday were representative of Scav’s purpose.
“The Moai heads constructed by each team did a great job of gently shocking the passersby out of their usual running-around routine and giving them something lovely and strange to wonder about,” she said. “I feel that the mix of confusion and delight that the heads created was a large part of what Scav aims to do.”
