Thirty minutes before the 38th annual Spring Sing was kicked off Sunday, cheers and chants filled Van Meter Auditorium to show support for the Greeks performing.

Spring Sing kicked off Greek Week, and was an event where sororities and fraternities took the stage and performed song-and-dance routines which earned them points that go toward Greek Week.

“It’s kind of like the highlight of the year for Greeks,” said Berea freshman Kara Ratliff, a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority, “And it’s a fun competition.”

Before the show, Ratliff and others said she and her sisters felt they had a chance of winning.

“I think we could win because our routine is very sharp, our backdrops are excellent and our charisma on stage is just wonderful,” she said.

Elizabethtown freshman Leo Sweet, a member of Farmhouse, said he felt his fraternity could win because they had won the last three years and “we’re confident.”

The five judges consisted mostly of faculty who work with student organizations.

Spring Sing’s theme this year was ‘Big Red’s Broadway’ and contestants had to use Broadway show tunes for their routines.

Alpha Omicron Pi sorority opened the show with a rendition of “On Broadway,” and numbers from “Chicago,” “Hair,” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” and “Chorus Line.”

The show continued for four hours with performances from seven sororities and six fraternities.

Acts borrowed heavily from the same shows, the popular ones being “Chicago,” “West Side Story,” “The Lion King” and “Grease.”

“Luck Be a Lady” from “Guys and Dolls,” “I’m the King of New York” from “Newsies” and “Footloose” were also songs that appeared frequently.

After the 13 acts performed, the crowd waited in noisy anticipation to hear the ruling. Spring Sing means a lot to the Greek community, said Louisville sophomore James Nolan, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

“It’s important to get your name out there,” he said. “It’s important to participate in Greek events.”

After several minutes, the judges came back with the verdict. Phi Delta Theta fraternity won with Farmhouse second and Alpha Gamma Rho third.

“I think our choreography was harder,” Shepherdsville junior Eric Sollman of the Phi Delts said. “I just think it was more entertaining.”

The Phi Delts’ routine consisted of “Greased Lightning” and “We Go Together” from “Grease,” “Luck Be a Lady” from “Guys and Dolls” and “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” from “The Lion King.”

In the sorority portion, Kappa Delta won with Phi Mu finishing second, Chi Omega third and AOPi fourth.

Somerset junior Heather Scalf of Kappa Delta said she felt they won “because of our sisterhood and how much we believed in each other.”

“He Had it Comin'” from “Chicago,” “America” from “West Side Story,” “Put on a Happy Face” from “Bye Bye Birdie,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and a song from “Hairspray” made up Kappa Delta’s show.

Danville graduate student Mindy Helton, a Chi O alumna, was in the audience Sunday and was impressed with the show.

“Overall, I thought it was an improvement from previous years,” she said. “It gets better every year.”

Reach Kelly Richardson at [email protected].