Chandler Gymnasium on Monday evening felt unlike anywhere else on campus. Competing students, staff, faculty, and their spectators came together to conclude a classic Winter Study tradition: Intramural (IM) basketball.
This year, Monday’s championship games tipped off following a massive snowstorm. Despite the blizzard, students and faculty packed into Chandler Gymnasium to watch the season’s final matchups.
The women’s league championship kicked off the night. In the two years since its inception, the league has rapidly gained popularity, generating 10 teams in this year’s tournament, Assistant Director of Club Sports and Intramurals Kris Hoey said. Fans of the league packed into the stands on Monday expecting a close championship game — and they got one.
The defending champions, Steal the Moon, consisted of members of women’s soccer. Recognized for their minion uniforms, paying homage to the hit movie series Despicable Me, the group returned to IM basketball because of its playful atmosphere.
“It’s stress-free, and it’s just fun and funny,” said Steal The Moon Captain Elle Long ’28. “It’s that childhood feeling of playing a sport for complete fun.”
Paula’s Princesses, composed of members of the women’s crew team, faced Steal the Moon in the league championship game. The team is named for women’s crew Head Coach Paula Thoms, according to Caroline Ripsteen ’29. The game was tightly contested, with back-and-forth leads and relentless defense on both ends of the floor.
Long and Maya Lloyd ’29 repeatedly fired threes from downtown for Steal the Moon, cutting through the court with quick drives. Tessa Chomsky ’29 ran the offense with smooth crossovers and sharp ball handling.
On Paula’s Princesses, Ellie Davis ’26 anchored the defense and knocked down clutch free throws, while Ripsteen drove to the basket to finish with aggressive layups. In the end, Paula’s Princesses claimed the women’s league IM champion title in a hard-fought, 12-11 victory.
“They’ve gotten a lot better during the course of Winter Study,” Paula’s Princesses coach and men’s basketball guard Ben McGraw ’26 said. “It’s been a lot of fun, and [I’m] proud that it worked out today.”
For some members of Paula’s Princesses, IM basketball was a tradition they were excited for long before Winter Study began. “This was something that was … hyped up in our summer email chain, so I was beyond excited to join,” Ripsteen said. “It’s such a great [addition] to [the crew] team culture to get this time together where we’re not formally training on the water.”
The open league championship followed. Starting with 20 teams, both of the league’s semifinals went into overtime.
The final pitted youth against experience. Old But Cold, a team of assistant coaches, professors, and staff members, faced off against Business Handlers, a group of students.
Old But Cold leaned on the familiarity that they built playing outside of the tournament. “We play together all the time,” Ryan Behan, men’s basketball assistant coach and captain of Old But Cold, said.
Business Handlers maintained a similar lightheartedness, according to captain Harlan Warnsman ’27. “My team is just a bunch of good friends who love basketball,” he said. “We play with heart and have a lot of fun playing together.”
Defensive pressure from Trey Livingston, an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team, combined with Behan’s aggressive drives and quick handles, kept the young Business Handlers on their heels. Old But Cold rode that momentum to clinch the open league championship with a 28-22 victory.
Livingston said the win carried extra significance. “It means a lot to us,” he said. “People would doubt [us] just because we’re older. But … we had to come out and show them what we were about.”
He described the team in one word: relentless. “We lost to [Business Handlers] in the regular season, so [this was the] get-back for the championship,” Livingston said.
Behan put it simply. “Old But Cold: It’s self-explanatory,” he said.
Above all, players said they valued how IM basketball brought the community together. “I’m going to miss just hooping with these guys every other night,” Behan said.
“IM basketball can honestly be the best part of your day,” Owen McHugh ’27, captain of Flight School, an open league team that made it to the semi-final game, said.
For Hoey, moments like these capture the core of intramural sports. “I’m just excited to keep things rolling [and] provide opportunities for students to come and exercise, socialize, be together, be on a team, enjoy themselves, and laugh,” she said.
Editor’s note: Ellie Davis and Ben Niewoehner, Record management and contestants in the championship games, were not involved in the writing or editing of this article.