by Bria Isaacson, News Editor

The Anchored Class won the 2017 Legacy Games, after recovering from game – losses and ending each day in the lead.

This year’s Indiana Jones-themed Legacy Games started on Monday, March 27 with a treasure hunt. Visionary came in first, with Anchored in second, Merciful in third and Vindicated in fourth; however, Anchored had the most points by the end of the night, with a score of 1,100 points, 300 points more than Visionary in second place.

Tuesday was Luce day, which included volleyball, basketball and dodgeball tournaments. Due to rain, the ‘smores and trivia originally planned to take place at the reservoir were moved indoors to the Stuce.

Vindicated won the volleyball tournament, and Visionary won the basketball tournament. Overall though, Anchored amassed 2,550 points by the end of Tuesday, with Visionary at 1,950, Vindicated at 1,675 and Merciful at 1,450.

Due to more rain, the movie for Wednesday, “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark,” was also moved inside the Stuce, instead of on the Green. Additionally, point cards were hidden on Wednesday.

Thanks to the point cards, by the end of the day Wednesday, Anchored had a total of 2,895 points, about 600 points more than Visionary following in second place.

Thursday was Stuce day, which included Ultimate Frisbee on the Green, ping pong and Super Smash Bros. tournaments, foursquare, gaga ball, limbo, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Twister, Chess, Settlers of Catan, Hungry Hungry Hippos and balloon pop. Capture the Flag, an annual event, was canceled because of rain.

By the end of Thursday, Anchored advanced with a total of 6,360 points. Merciful pulled into second place with a total of 4,945 points, Vindicated was in third with 4,505 points and Visionary followed in last place with 4,375 points.

Friday presented many opportunities for a mad dash of points: more hidden point cards, a twitter challenge and a t-shirt competition during chapel, which rewarded points to the class with the greatest percentage of students wearing their class t-shirt. Finally, the Games closed with a Last Crusade dance in the Luce, during which each of the classes presented their class dance.

Vindicated Class member Bryce Hockema noted how each of the dances were different. “Madison Farrar’s style [for Vindicated] is really beat-based,” he said. “Anchored’s dance, with Jeremiah Law, was very story-based. Merciful’s was really theme-based, and they did the Indiana Jones theme the whole time.”

Merciful Class and their beat-boxed Indiana Jones theme won the dance competition. Merciful Class Choreographer Bethany Kelly said her vision for the dance was to create a dance easy enough for anyone to learn.

“I wanted to make a dance…that wasn’t focused on everyone’s individual skills, but what our skills looked like together, a dance that would be a fun time of making friends, win or lose,” she said.

The spirit and teamwork of the Merciful Class contributed to their win in a big way, according to Kelly.

“But most importantly, when I ran out of ideas or the things I wanted to do weren’t realistic, our class stepped up,” Kelly said. “They recruited more people, they came to me with ideas and they were willing to roll around on the ground with people on top of them!”

Despite the dance win for the Merciful Class, the Anchored Class had the most points in the end, a total of 7,443, thus giving them the victory for the 2017 Legacy Games. Merciful came in second with 6,426 points, Vindicated came in third with 5,345 points and Visionary ended with 4,840 points, according to scorekeeper Ashley Eastwood.

Anchored Class member Lizzy Sherwood said, “I’m really excited about [the win], because I have participated in most things and been really involved every year. The last time we won [the Legacy Games] was our freshman year, so it feels really good to finish strong. I didn’t get to participate as much this year, but seeing the way so many people came out to win it senior year makes me really proud.”