Students gathered at the Breslin Center for Red Bull's Paper Wings competition on Feb. 23, 2022.
MSU students gathered at the Breslin Center this week to try their hands at some amateur aviation in a paper plane competition.
The Feb. 23 event, which served as a qualifying round for Red Bull’s globe-spanning Red Bull Paper Wings competition, invited anyone above the age of 18 to test their paper plane construction abilities and compete for longest airtime and greatest distance thrown. This competition is the largest of its kind, according to Red Bull.
Most Spartans were not optimistic about their chances in the competition, but were committed to having fun.
Environmental studies and sustainability junior Emily Juriga represented the MSU Outdoors Club.
“We watched a YouTube video about 30 minutes ago, and we’re going to put our own spin on it if we forget how to do it,” Juriga said. “I haven’t built a paper airplane in maybe three years. … It’s like reliving my childhood.”
Juriga placed 111th out of 131 students in the distance category and 13th out of 30 in the airtime category.
Psychology senior Mike Paterala represented Alpha Kappa Psi at the competition.
“I’m just doing the one that I’ve done since I was 10,” Paterala said, on his paper plane design.
Paterala described his chances of winning the competition as “probably zero.” Mike ranked 67th place in distance and 22nd place for airtime.
Supply chain management junior Paige Van De Grift said that she participated because one of her friends was working the event as a student brand ambassador.
“My airtime was a little sad, but my distance definitely went better,” Van De Grift said. “The person in front of me threw it way further, but that’s OK, I had fun.”
Some students fared better than they had expected to. Business sophomore Gavin Bruggeman said he decided to participate in the competition to relieve some stress from a busy week. Ahead of his toss, Bruggeman said that the construction of his paper plane lacked methodology, and described it as “just a prayer.”
However, Bruggeman landed himself 18th place with a 52.7-foot attempt in the distance category.
Engineering freshman Kody Crowley secured himself a competitive position with an 84-foot throw, the longest distance at that point in the day. Crowley discussed his throw in a post-toss interview, Red Bull in hand.
“I'm feeling pretty good. Don’t want to be overconfident, we got all day, just hoping for the best right now,” Crowley said. “My buddy taught me in high school how to make a very good paper airplane, so I can’t take the credit for it…Aaron Hughes, if you’re hearing this man, I appreciate you. You helped me out.”
Crowley eventually finished second place after packaging freshman and MSU Outdoors Club member Joe Bemis, who came out on top by a fraction of an inch.
Bemis said that coming in first took him by surprise. Bemis attended the competition with his roommate, engineering freshman Lucas Meringa, who took third with a throw just under 80 feet.
“We had completely different designs and techniques,” Bemis said in an email. “We showed up late and told ourselves that we’d simply throw a piece of paper and leave. Regardless, I'm proud to be representing MSU at the national event!”
Bemis will proceed to the next round. With a steady hand and the right sheet of A4 paper, he could be on his way to Salzburg, Austria for the Red Bull Paper Wings World Final this May.
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