Baseball High Kicks Its Way to JayRock Title
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas baseball used some short-shorts and well-choreographed dance moves to capture the title at the 10th annual JayRock event on Monday night. The baseball Jayhawks outdid performances from across Kansas Athletics with some fancy footwork in a live performance of Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much”.
Competing against other live performances and pre-recorded comedy videos, baseball edged softball and track and field for the top honor.
The softball team’s act featured both a video and live portions of a parody of The Hunger Games, which pitted two members of each Big 12 program against characters portraying KU football player Ben Heeney and softball’s own Maddie Stein, starring as herself. Heeney and Stein eventually defeated all of the other “districts” and celebrated with a live song performed in honor the Jayhawks.
Track and field also showed their dance moves, performing to the song “It’s Tricky” by Run DMC. The track and field entry featured both choreographed group dancing, along with some stellar solo performances.
JayRock is a student-athlete variety show put on by the Kansas Athletics Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), with donations collected at the door for a designated charity.
Monday night’s show had an MTV theme and was brilliantly hosted by Maddy Rich, a former member of the women’s track and field team. Among her many hosting duties, Rich was especially clever in announcing this year’s judges, director of scholarships and career services Carrah Haley, financial aid coordinator Carmen Thomas, assistant strength coach Patricia Dietz and associate athletics director for development Doug Banks.
Outside of the three winning performances, swimming and diving started the program off with a skit on NARP (naturally athletic regular people). They were followed by the soccer team’s video rendition of the MTV hit show “NEXT”.
Volleyball was next on the program, with a live variation of the show “Ridiculousness”. Among the volleyball team’s panel for the show, included a stellar impersonation of Beyonce.
Men’s golf had a video of the show “Parental Control”, while, the rowing team did a parody of “The Real World”, with Jayhawk athletes making up the seven members of the household.
Women’s tennis showed of their lighter side, while putting the Jayhawk Tennis Center on display in episode of MTV “Cribs”. Women’s golf played egg roulette, which is often featured on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon”, defeating the rowing team.
In the final video of the evening, swimming and diving made a great music video to the song “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. The video showcased their lip syncing skills as well as their dance moves but above ground and under water.
Since its inception in 2006, JayRock has steadily gained momentum as one of the best things about being a Jayhawk. For the first three years, the bragging rights for JayRock victory were contained within the confines of Kansas Athletics.
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