BY CJ GIBSON
For the first two weeks of October, the Tiger Wellness Center hosted its first MIAA Burpee Battle competition.
FHSU competed against four other universities: Emporia State University, University of Nebraska Kearney, Missouri Western State University, and Northwest Missouri State University.
The battle took place virtually, with each student submitting an online form to count their burpees from each day.
From the second day of the competition, FHSU was already leading by more than 5000 burpees.
At the end of the two week period, FHSU students had completed 25,492 burpees. UNK followed with 2,100 burpees, less than a tenth of FHSU’s. ESU had 120, NWMSU had 40, and MWSU didn’t submit any.
FHSU scored an average of over 1,800 burpees each day, earning the Tiger Wellness Center a sizable trophy and the opportunity to decide the type of exercise for the next year’s battle.
When asked why FHSU maintained such a strong lead throughout the competition, Lezah Fox, a graduate assistant at the Tiger Wellness Center, said their excitement stemmed from being the group to help organize the event.
“We were actually kind of the ones who started it, so we had a lot of excitement going into it; we were like really getting pumped up for it,” Fox said. “I think the other teams that were in it kind of fell off the boat a little bit. They saw that we were so far ahead and realized that they might not have been able to catch up with us.”
FHSU is competing against UNK again in its annual Expresso Bike Challenge.
While using the Tiger Wellness Center’s Expresso bikes, students can race against their friends or ghosts of themselves on virtual bike trails. There are also games where cyclists collect tokens throughout the terrain to earn points.
FHSU fell behind UNK in the first week, 618-779 miles.
“We’re going to really hype it up and try to get people signed up and get people in here riding the miles. There’s just been tons of time where the bikes are empty and people haven’t been riding,” Fox said when discussing how FHSU fell by behind in the first week. “There’s a couple of people from [UNK] where we checked this morning and they already have like 40 miles on their bike. It’s hard to keep up with that but I think we’re doing a lot better so far this week than we were last week.”
After a Late Night Ride Party on Wednesday, FHSU regained their losses in the second week, leading 1,282-946.
Over 100 students between the universities have participated in the competition. The record number of miles in two days for the challenge is Guillaume Plagneux from FHSU, who logged 102 miles during the second week.
To make an account and join the challenge, students can visit expresso.com/Register or create an account on the bike itself. The Tiger Wellness Center also provides a login for students who don’t want to create accounts that will still add to FHSU’s total miles.
The Expresso Bike Challenge has taken place for the past two weeks on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the last opportunity to log miles will be Nov. 17 & 18.
Cyclists who ride more than 30 miles before the end of the competition will earn a free t-shirt commemorating their achievement.
“UNK is a huge rival for FHSU, so we just need everybody’s help to get out here and beat UNK because we don’t have football or any other sports going on this fall. This is kind of our big rivalry moment,” Fox said.