MMA and milk miles: Rice students engage with sports
Courtesy Peter Stern
04/16/24 at 10:54 p.m
It is not uncommon to find yourself walking to Reckling Park to watch the baseball team or to the recreational fields to play soccer. However, Division I and intramural sports are only a small part of what the greater Rice community is involved in. From cricket to mixed martial arts to milk miles (yes, milk miles), students engage in a variety of sports that are a testament to their skills. Past pastimes, new endeavors, and the need to de-stress.
For Vishnu Sriram, a freshman at Will Rice College, cricket was an essential part of his life while growing up in India, and he wanted to play the sport even in a new environment.
“When I moved to the United States several years ago, [cricket] “It was something I wanted to bring and share with everyone,” Sriram said. “I just played around and asked people if they had tried cricket, or wanted to try it, and I welcomed anyone who wanted to try the sport.”
Sriram said the transition wasn’t difficult when he arrived at Rice.
“Before joining Rice, I met some new students on Instagram who were also interested in cricket,” Sriram said. “We started playing cricket around Rice, and as passers-by took an interest and joined in, our cricket community began to grow. Will Rice Quad has been a great place for us to arrange some smaller games and attract new people to try out cricket, and we also occasionally head to Pitch 2 for bigger games .
For others, like Jones College student Bikram Singh, their love for their sports only developed after arriving at Rice.
Singh began boxing after being taught by another student at Rice, then moved on to training in Muay Thai, which led him to compete in sparring fights around Houston. After learning about martial arts, he and other college students founded the Rice Mixed Martial Arts Club.
“I wanted to start an MMA club to give other Rice students the opportunity to learn different martial arts, regardless of their level or previous experience,” Singh said. “I wanted to provide a safe space for anyone to learn the basics of different martial arts.”
According to Singh, the process of setting up this club at Rice was straightforward, and the club was able to find space in the recreation center to hold practices. But obtaining financing for equipment was more difficult.
“Rice was not fully able to provide the resources we needed,” Singh said. “I thought about the process of getting club funding [was] Really confusing [and] difficult. We’ve been using mats and some of the equipment the rec center already has, but we could really use the funding to get equipment like shin pads, Thai pads, focus gloves or wrestling shoes for people to borrow during training times.
Rice students have also found other ways to stay active in a less structured way. Some students at Weiss College recently competed in the Milk Mile, which consists of running four 400-meter laps with a milk container finished before each lap.
“I got the idea for the milk mile from a few friends who ran milk miles in high school,” said sophomore Peter Stern, the event organizer. “After some banter with friends about who would be the best milk maker, I thought it would be fun to go out and actually do it.”
The event was attended by 20 competitors and 15 spectators who witnessed the spectacle. According to Stern, everyone completed the race, and the milk mile was overall a success.
“I think events like the milk mile are a great stress reliever,” Stern said. “While running the Milk Mile may not be the ideal form of relaxation for most people, it has given me, and I hope others, something to look forward to. Spontaneous and creative events like this are some of my favorite parts of being at Rice. I really appreciate how much people are willing to show Things like milk tendency, especially with all the different things people are doing.
