Feature: Fitness competition brings biggest, strongest to Dillon

The bracket is set, the field has begun to narrow, and the excitement is mounting. No, it’s not March Madness just yet. But February Frenzy — the popular Dillon Gymnasium fitness tournament — is already underway. This three-week, six-round elimination tournament held each February pits freshman against upperclassman, graduate student against faculty member, average student against varsity athlete. All compete for the title of "fitness champion."

First held in 2006, the fitness challenge consists of six events, two strength-based and four on cardio. The two fields — one men’s and one women’s — each consist of four brackets of 16 spots, for a total of 64 entrants. Divisions are drawn between graduate students, faculty and staff, freshmen and sophomores, and juniors and seniors. All members of each randomly seeded pool must first pedal five miles on a stationary bike. The results of the early rounds are self-reported — competitors never face their adversaries head to head. Next, participants must compete in the bar hang, clinging to the chin-up bar for as long as possible. The third event, a three-mile treadmill run, is also time-based. The fourth, often considered the most grueling by competitors, is a 2,000-meter erg row.

At this point, a single competitor from each division will remain: one graduate student, one faculty or staff member, one underclassman and one upperclassman. For the fifth round, a bench-press competition will be held: Men must lift their full body weight for a maximum number of reps, while women must lift half their weight. Here, the graduate-student champion is matched against the faculty or staff winner, and the two undergraduates face against each other. Last, the undergraduate champion and the other winner will compete in a stair-climb race, with the fastest to climb 1,000 flights declared the winner.

The field is always diverse, and the competition intense. Last year, 41 men and 38 women participated. In the competition’s first year, 91 people participated. While most of the men’s divisions — especially faculty and upperclassmen — easily come close to filling on their own most years, two women’s divisions get a special participation boost from a constant source: the women’s soccer team, which enters its entire squad in the competition each year. To help quicken the pace of the grueling middle days of a 10-month offseason training program, the team competes in February Frenzy, engaging one another in friendly competition. This approach has left its mark on the bracket — last year’s women’s champion, sophomore Christine Lee, was a freshman on the team.

“The offseason is not the sexy part of being a varsity athlete,” women's soccer head coach Julie Shackford said. “It’s very demanding physically, and everything is in preparation for the fall. We try to mix it up and do some fun things, and I think this falls into [that] category.”

February Frenzy is the brainchild of assistant campus recreation director Matt Brzycki. Brzycki is a former U.S. Marine who won numerous military decorations and was recognized as an “unsung hero” by the Princeton Students Award Committee in April 2001. In addition to orchestrating the freshman tournament, he also teaches weight-training classes and manages Stephens Fitness Center.

“When there’re a lot of people in each event, it’s a lot of fun,” Brzycki said. “It’s exciting for [the fitness staff] to follow what’s going on [within the bracket].”

For Brzycki and the rest of the staff, part of the fun of February Frenzy is the complete unpredictability of the bracket from year to year.

“You have to be good to win it, but a lot more goes into it than that,” Brzycki said. “Once people are in, it’s really good friendly, exciting competition. People really want to do well. This year [especially] we have a number of unknowns.”

While February Frenzy is one of the most popular fitness events on campus, few realize that it is only one of several that the Dillon staff hold throughout the year. Twenty fitness challenges have been scheduled for the 2009-10 academic year, seven of which have not yet begun. Those events completed include everything from a bench-press contest to a rope-climbing competition. Though the registration process for February Frenzy has already closed, several fitness events this year still remain.

“I think there are so many amazing programs that campus recreation provides, and we like to tap into that,” Shackford said. “There are great resources out there for all of us, as coaches and student athletes, as well as [for] the general student body.”