A rainy and muddy afternoon provided the perfect backdrop to the tug-of war competition between fraternities and sororities at Greek Week’s Tug.

Tug, an annual event near the end of Greek Week at WKU, consist of eight members teams who compete.

“We like to lay in mud and tug against other eight people on the rope,” Pleasant View, Tenn. junior and Tug’s chair Evelyn Cordeiro said.

The afternoon started with the tug-of-war rounds taking place in the mud, but a rain shower that lasted through most of the event made things muddier.

Among the fraternities, Delta Tau Delta fraternity won first place in a match against FarmHouse fraternity. It was a first, and a break from the usual top finishers, FarmHouse and Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, Cordeiro said.

“Delta Tau Delta doesn’t usually place in the top tier,” she said.

Louisville senior and Delta Tau Delta tug team member Mark Gavula was glad to see the win in his last year at WKU.

“It was awesome,” he said, with mud covering half his face. “My senior year, going out with the win.”

He said the team trained for three months for at least an hour per night.

Owensboro junior Ethan Wade was tired after tugging his fraternity to victory.

“We worked so hard,” Wade said. “Been pulling for about three months.”

Gavula said he didn’t win for himself.

“I won for the people in front of me on the rope, behind me and anyone else on the rope,” he said.

Gavula also commented on the unexpected nature of his fraternity’s victory.

“Everybody f****** thought they’d beat us, but we got it,” he said.

Among the sororities, Kappa Delta sorority came out on top this year, winning a final match against Alpha Gamma Delta sorority.

Paris freshman KK Shepherd, who was on Kappa Delta’s team, said she prepared knowing everyone would bring their best.

“We’ve been out for awhile now, just kind of every night knowing that nobody comes down here and messes around,” she said. “Everybody’s a valiant opponent and so just knowing that, you have to kind of think everybody’s working just as hard as you are.”

Nashville junior Katie DePriest, a Kappa Delta tug team member, noted the team spirit that comes with the competition.

“It feels great,” she said. “I did it all for my sisters and we had a great coach.”

She also said the tug team shares a special bond.

“When you’re on the tug team, you kind of become your own little family,” she said.

Lexington sophomore Fiona Martin said from the outside, she thinks Tug might seem kind of silly.

“But it’s just a fun thing that we can all, like, do, and cheer for each other,” she said.