Sports
Thursday, April 14, 2016
www.NorthernStar.info/Sports H @NSSports H 815-753-9637
2016 IFC Tugs
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The Northern Star will be featuring all nine Tugs teams leading up to the 45th anniversary of the Tugs tournament, which is scheduled to begin April 25 and end April 30.
Northern Star File Photo
Devin Miller, former Phi Sigma Kappa tugger, attempts to keep his grip in a match against Sigma Alpha Epsilon on April 25, 2015. Phi Sigma Kappa lost the championship match after winning the event three years in a row.
Northern Star File Photo
Members of Sigma Nu tug in a championship match on April 25. Sigma Nu finished fourth in the 2015 Tugs Tournament.
Phi Sigma Kappa looks Sigma Nu tries to to avenge 2015 Tugs loss reach higher seed
Krystal Ward Staff writer
DeKalb | While Pi Kappa Alpha had a dominant run in NIU Tugs from 1971 to 2010, winning all but nine titles, Phi Sigma Kappa has enjoyed a recent string of success, winning its first championship in 2010 before pulling off a three-peat from 2012-14 and losing in 2011 and 2015. Tugs has been a tradition at NIU since the ‘60s and has been run by the Interfraternity Council since 2008 – IFC was chosen to take over the tournament after former fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon suspended operations of its chapter, according to the IFC website.
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You work all season and the only thing you have to practice against is yourselves. You really can’t show how hard you work up until it’s game time ... .” Kevin Mateblewski Senior Phi Sigma Kappa member
The process for Tugs is long and grueling — some members start preparing in January while others
start as early as the middle of the fall semester. It’s something in recent years that Phi Sigma Kappa has really grown to appreciate and work hard for. Phi Sigma Kappa’s practices consist of tugging against each other and practicing different moves. Most teams have something called a “hit” where all nine members are sitting in an upward position where they pull and push back on the boards in the ground. One team will try to take the rope straight through the other team’s arms or they might pop up, and it turns into somewhat of a hanging battle. Kevin Mateblewski, Phi Sigma Kappa member and tugger, will be graduating this May and has been participating in Tugs since his freshman year. He has experienced winning and losing the event. “You work all season and the only thing you have to practice against is yourselves,” Mateblewski said. “You really can’t show how hard you work up until it’s game time. It’s one week, you got your first match and if you lose that, your shot at going to first place at the championship is gone already.” For Phi Sigma Kappa, it doesn’t matter who they go up against
Finishes in recent years 2012: First place 2013: First place 2014: First place 2015: Second place
— they just want to win. Last year, the team lost to Sigma Alpha Epsilon after winning three consecutive titles. “The end goal is just to win,” Mateblewski said. “Whoever we end up going against is who we end up going against.” This will be Mateblewski’s final year participating as an undergraduate, but he said Tugs is definitely something he will try to come back and be a part of every year. Most organizations have strong alumni bases that support Tugs because of its ongoing tradition, something Mateblewski said he wants to give back to. “While I’ve been here, the people that have graduated have come and have given their advice and any kind of support they can,” he said. “It’s definitely something I want to continue to do after I graduate, just give back what I can to the place that gave so much to me.”
Krystal Ward Staff writer
DeKalb | Sigma Nu has been participating in Tugs for at least the past seven years, placing as high as third in 2012 and fourth in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Like other Greek fraternities, Sigma Nu holds a wearying preparation for Tugs season. Members go through mental and physical stress in the process of working toward their end goal of winning the entire tournament each spring. The fraternity, founded at NIU in 1970, follows its warm-ups with what is called a ‘Greek Mile,’ where members run throughout the entire perimeter of Greek Row before returning back to their house on Greenbrier Road. Next, the tuggers get on the ropes where they pull each other up into hangs and practice pinch work, which is making sure their armpits are clamped down on the rope. From there, they try different scenarios where one side has the advantage and the other side is trying to take it from them. They also will do what is called a ‘live’ where the first and second ropes have a match against each other.
Those matches can last anywhere from five to 20 minutes and the intensity depends on how long the match is. Tyler Denham, sophomore Sigma Nu member and new member educator, said certain team members decide to diet to make sure they make it to the average weight. “Usually about two weeks before a match, that’s when we really clean up the diet,” Denham said. “All the tuggers go on a ‘no drinking’ policy — no one’s allowed to drink for those two weeks or [during] the match week.” Denham said he is personally excited to face Tau Kappa Epsilon because he has a few buddies in their house and the two organizations are neighbors. “We have a really good relationship with them, so it’d be cool to go out there and face your friend in a sport and beat them,” he said. “Once we’re on the rope, we’re not friends, but afterwards, we’ll be good again.” Denham tugged in all three matches last year and is excited to get back on the ropes this year. “It’s awesome to go and rep your letters in front of the entire Greek community and put on a show,” Denham said.
Men’s tennis on brink of second or third place in conference
Patrick Smith Staff writer T @NSSportsPatrick
DeKalb | Men’s tennis (15-7, 3-2 MAC) will have an opportunity to defeat the University at Buffalo (9-6, 2-2 MAC) on Sunday as it looks to clinch a playoff spot.
“We definitely needed it,” said head coach Patrick Fisher after the Huskies’ win over the University of Toledo on Sunday. “A loss would have put our season in jeopardy. That win kept our playoff hopes intact and we’re striving to be a No. 2 or 3 seed.” Sunday’s contest against the
Bulls will be the Huskies’ first true home game of the season — they played in a doubleheader against the University of WisconsinWhitewater and the University of Detroit Mercy on Jan. 24. “We should be playing outside — the weather looks good this
week,” Fisher said. “We should have an advantage playing on campus in DeKalb and we are also doing a community campus event which starts at 9:45 [a.m.] and is free to people to come out and support.” The Huskies are currently tied for
second in the MAC, but Fisher said he knows each game is necessary with the season winding down. “If we win we either play for a good seed or we have a do-or-die game ... which is dangerous,” he said. Matches will begin at 11:00 a.m. Sunday at the West Tennis Courts.