Hamilton streakers strike campus

The campus was calm and quiet. A few students walked on paths from classes to dorms, and a handful of tourists posed in front of landmarks.

Suddenly, Monday afternoon's silence was shattered. Naked bodies, screaming voices and blaring air horns emerged from an obstructed corner near Nassau Hall and started running. Fast.

The 20 streakers, members of the Hamilton College Varsity Streaking Team, had come to Princeton for a meet.

"The idea of going to Princeton was to participate in good-natured competition and score a victory," said Hamilton alum Matt Stringer, who founded the team in 2002 and flew in from his home in Denver for the meet. "Princeton is definitely a worthy rival."

Streakers consider themselves victorious when people applaud or join in. Another sign of success is avoiding campus safety officials.

Scott Welfel '06, founder of Princeton's streaking team — which was disbanded last week after a police investigation — was impressed by the team's turnout and spirit.

"I think it was basically a shock-and-awe campaign," he said. "They completely rocked our world. Our team was put to shame."

A reporter and a photographer from Sports Illustrated magazine came to campus to watch the Hamilton team in action.

The streak

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From their starting point at Nassau Hall, the mostly male team ran down campus past McCosh Hall and Prospect House at about 2:30 p.m. witnesses said. They yelled, "Hamilton College Varsity Streaking Team" and waved a Hamilton flag, causing some students to run out of their classes to watch.

Students accessorized with colorful wigs, backpacks, boas, gloves, a cape and ski goggles.

After running through Prospect Gardens, the team entered Frist Campus Center intent on distracting as many people as possible from their everyday activities, Stringer said. "It was definitely one of the highlights to see all these government officials taking passport photos look up from their work and give us a round of applause."

Students cheered enthusiastically as the team ran through Frist, Stringer said. Others attempted to ignore the streakers. Matt Sargeant '08 was eating late lunch on the A-level of Frist when the streakers ran through. "I tried not to look at them," he said. "It's not really any of my business if they do it but that doesn't mean I have to look at them."

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Evgenia Raikh '07 said she was unfazed by the streakers. "Naked men aren't so exciting when you realize there's one under the polo shirt of every man," she said.

The streakers did not attract much negative attention, said Charles Davall, the Department of Public Safety's deputy director for operations. "They must have been really fast because we didn't get any calls about them [being] on campus."

By 3 p.m., the clothed team was walking quietly through campus under 1879 Arch. Their flag was rolled, and the meet was over.