On Friday, May 1 senior communication major Jake Wellington hosted a cornhole tournament at Lawson Court for his senior project.
As a part of the communication program, each graduating senior is required to host a senior project culminating all they have learned throughout their academic journey. Wellington was inspired to host a cornhole tournament, as he wanted a fun way to close his years at USAO. He hosted his tournament during finals week, as he had students in mind.
“Everyone is stressed and needs something to take their minds off school and enjoy an event, I wanted it to be a mental reset for our students in a really stressful time,” said Wellington.
Originally, Wellington had a baseball carnival in mind for his project during the same time frame. However, that idea soon faded as there were conflicting events, thus the cornhole tournament was created. Wellington still wanted to prioritize students for his event, giving them a break from testing. Additionally, he knew the prize of a recliner would draw interest for his event.
The tournament began Friday evening at 6p.m. Wellington was able to inform students of his event through posters with QR codes, and an email sent by Cameron Roberts, Director of Student Life, containing the necessary information about his tournament. Wellington believed having these two forms of publicity helped him to gather a large crowd of attendees for his event.
The tournament itself was comprised of 16 teams formed from 32 participants. The first two rounds of the tournament were played to 11 points, and the last two rounds were played to 21 points.
Cooper Hamilton and Jace Brandenburg were the winners of the tournament and were awarded the prize of the recliner. Wellington enjoyed hosting the tournament as his project.
“Overall, I was really stressed planning and trying to execute this event, but I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out,” said Wellington.
Whitley Brown is a third-year communication major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
