Borpe wins Rock Rally once again, Marlee Remenap crowned Gold Ambassador
Music pounded through the Plachta Auditorium on Friday night as the audience erupted into whooping and applause for the Rock Rally performances. The energy of the crowd rippled through the room as the Borpe (Beddow and Thorpe residence halls) community took the stage to receive their trophy for the second year in a row.
The Rock Rally is an annual Homecoming event hosted at the Plachta Auditorium, showcasing a lip sync performance battle between residence hall communities, known as Mock Rock, as well as performances from registered student organizations. The event also features the recognition of the year’s Maroon Ambassadors and the crowning of the Gold Ambassador.
The Rock Rally was hosted by Jacey Rezmer, a sophomore who co-hosted last year’s event alongside longtime emcee Tim Otteman. This was the first time Otteman had not hosted the event in seven years, according to CM Life’s coverage of last year’s event.
For her first time as a solo host, Rezmer provided energetic introductions for every performance of the night.
The event began with performances from Central Michigan University’s dance and cheer teams, as well as an original song from student musician Jacob McLeod.
CMU’s President Bob Davies made a guest appearance to fire up the crowd in anticipation for the night’s event and the next day’s homecoming football game.
The theme of the night was decades, demonstrated through the performances of the five competing residence hall communities choreographed to iconic music of each decade.
Each community represented a different decade:
- SHC (Saxe, Herring and Celani) represented the 50’s
- Borpe (Beddow and Thorpe) represented the 60’s
- Towers Originals (Troutman, Carey and Cobb) represented the 80’s
- FEW (Fabiano, Emmons and Woldt) represented the 90's
- Swerrill (Sweeney and Merrill) represented the 2000’s
The crowd roared as each community took the stage and persisted with screams of encouragement as they performed their choreographed routines.
The performances were filled with notable pop culture references, such as SHC’s performance of songs from the musical “Grease” and Towers Originals’ allusion to “The Breakfast Club” in their rendition of “Don’t You Forget About Me."
The communities’ performances were scored based on choreography, creativity, energy, spirit and timing by a panel of judges. Each judge was selected from a different academic department to diversify the panel.
One of the judges, CMU student Jose Medina, had experience on a similar stage having performed in a dance competition at Grand Valley State University’s Homecoming last year.
“I already knew what I was looking for," Medina said. "I just watched every dance and made sure everyone was having fun, obviously that’s the first thing. But just seeing the creativity that all of the student communities had, it was amazing. All of the RSO’s as well."
Between the community performances, a variety of RSO groups took the stage, each eliciting heartened cheers from the audience. Vocal performances from Central Harmony and On the Rox were complimented by dance routines from the CMU Pom team, Club Hip Hop and ReaXtion.
The introduction of the Maroon Ambassadors began as each individual was brought to the stage to acknowledge their accomplishments and contributions. This year’s Maroon Ambassadors were Lucia Dominguez, Carnell Poindexter III, Mitchell Basham, Jacey Hutchins, Marlee Remenap, Aaliyah Howard and Tupac Holmes.
The 2023 Gold Ambassador, Ku’Juana Quinn, joined the ambassadors on stage to pass her crown on to senior Marlee Remenap.
Remenap said that she was excited and so thankful to be voted the Gold Ambassador, crediting her win to her friends and supporters.
“I just want to keep loving people, leading people and being a role model for individuals, while also encouraging them to be role models for themselves, forging their own paths and building their own legacies here at CMU,” Remenap said.
Remenap was then tasked with announcing the winning community in the Mock Rock Performances. SHC came in third place, FEW came in second place and Borpe took the title once again after their win in 2023.
