“Men of Keep” Battle “Sons of Will” in Third Annual Homeric Games

In the inaugural year of Thomas Aquinas College’s Northfield, Massachusetts, campus in 2019, students launched what they hoped would become a new athletic tradition, modeled after Homer’s Iliad. Two years later, that tradition is holding strong, as on Sunday the men of the Merrill-Keep residence hall and their rivals in Wilson Hall challenged each other in the third annual Homeric Games.

The Games began with an enthusiastic cheer from the ladies of Gould Hall and the discus throw, in which junior Tanner Sheffield easily won first place for the “Men of the Keep.” Eager to redeem themselves, the “Sons of Will” snagged a win as freshman Kevin Guinee out-threw all challengers in the subsequent javelin event. 

After a series of false starts, the third event of the day — Sprints — was effortlessly won by sophomore Thomas Rust. Next, the famous “Chariot Race” (also known as the wheelbarrow race) put the already-battered men into a gauntlet of teamwork and perseverance. Finally, to cap off the day, the athletes introduced a new game: the Fireman’s Carry. Many of the Gould ladies laughed uproariously as the men dropped each other during the event.

Both residence halls fought honorably for glory and dominance; however, the “Sons of Will” emerged victorious. “The Merrill-Keep boys won the dodgeball match at the beginning of the year,” observed freshman Kevin Guinee. “So this was definitely needed to boost the morale for Wilson.”