By Tess Castelijn
Editor’s note: This news story is part of a collaboration between The Herring and AUC’s journalism course. The story was entirely reported, written, edited, and fact checked by members of the journalism course. Some material may have been altered by The Herring’s editors to fit its style guidelines.
–On Saturday, April 22, AUC won the annual University College Student Representatives of the Netherlands (UCSRN) Tournament for the third time in a row. Different university colleges battled each other in sports, arts, and academic events. AUC took home the victory with a score of 109.5 points, 28 points ahead of runner-up Erasmus University College (EUC).
This year marks the seventh edition of the UCSRN tournament. AUC hosted the tournament, scoring its second home victory. Students from AUC, EUC, Utrecht University College (UCU), Leiden University College (LUC), University College Maastricht (UCM), University College Groningen (UCG), University College Twente (UCT), and University College Roosevelt (UCR) competed against each other from 11:00 until midnight. UCG and UCT formed a joint team (UCG/T) due to their small student body size.
At 10:00 am, second-year Humanities major Lasse Rogie and second-year Social Science major Petra Stangvik of the Amsterdam University College Student Association (AUCSA) Board brought in the UCSRN trophy on a scooter during the opening ceremony at AUC’s academic building. The tournament started off with a new category: the Board Battle. Boards of different UCs had to compete against each other in the classic Dutch game ‘spijkerpoepen’, lowering a nail attached to a string around their waist into a beer bottle. In the second game, board members had to find gummy bears on a plate of flour, using only their faces. During the match, students from EUC stole the trophy. The cup is currently still situated in Rotterdam, despite attempts by the UCSRN board and AUC students to retrieve it. AUC took an early lead after the Board Battle with 5.5 points, tied with EUC for first place.
After the Board Battle, the sports events kicked off. Though AUC’s only competitor to win first place was Onno Nieman, who won the table tennis competition, AUC finished in the top three in all sports events. AUC was runner-up in basketball, the running relay, and volleyball. The AUC participants wore matching black shirts with three small ‘Andreas’-crosses on the back, designed by AUCSA’s Rogie. AUC finished third place in hockey, squash, and men’s and women’s football – the latter starting off well with a 5-0 win in their first match against EUC. Thanks to the steady performances throughout, AUC won the sports competition with 42.5 points, taking a lead with 48 points overall.
In arts and academics, AUC finished with a total of 61.5 points, far ahead of runner-up EUC. AUC ended up second place in chess, the cook-off, film, and photography. This year’s cooking competition had students preparing an entire meal. AUC’s gastronomy and BRMS teacher Maurits de Klepper judged the competition. “It was between AUC and UCU,” said de Klepper. “AUC would have won, but they only made a dish, not a whole meal.” AUC prepared an entire trout, while UCU’s cooks made a roasted chicken breast accompanied by a chocolate mousse. AUC’s dance crew, SlayUC, led by third-year Science major and AUCSA chair Lance Bosch, won the dancing competition once again. AUC also won the Battle of the Bands and Liquid Pong.
The victory was announced at around 00:30, after a thrilling match between the UCs in Liquid Pong in which AUC tied for first place with UCG/T. The organizers kept the scores secret until the last minute, to keep the winner a surprise. AUC students broke out into loud cheering when AUC was finally announced as the winner. “As far as I’m concerned it wasn’t a surprise,” said Bosch. “We AUCers put a ridiculous amount of energy into what we do, both during the day of the tournament as all of the days leading up to it.”
AUC students have organised an event to retrieve the UCSRN trophy from Rotterdam, to be held on Wednesday April 26 or Friday April 28. The time and location of next year’s tournament have not been announced yet.
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