Coastal Carolina University ran, hiked, paddleboarded, biked, and surfed its way into the top five during the four-week Mother-Nature-meets-March-Madness Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) Campus Challenge.

In its first year of participation, CCU finished the challenge ranked No. 5 in the Southeast and No. 7 in the Division II schools' category. Nearly 100 people in the CCU community signed up for this challenge and logged more than 890 outdoor entries. Brandon Cassarino, a graduate student in the sport management program, placed No. 17 in the U.S. in the "most outdoorsy participants" category.

"I participated in the challenge to spread the word about how great having fun in the outdoors really is," said Cassarino. "I believe that I got outside way more than usual because of the AORE Campus Challenge. The challenge aspect of the app was cool, but seeing other people enjoying outdoor activities was more rewarding."

For this challenge, University Recreation asked students, faculty, and staff to download the AORE app and log different outdoor activities, ranging from fishing to running, walking to skateboarding, and gardening to laying in a hammock. This four-week challenge began on Sept. 14 and ended on Oct. 13.

CCU competed against 97 other schools across the country to see which one has the most "outdoorsy" campus. Some of the schools CCU matched up against were Florida State University, University of Saint Frances, Grand Valley State University, and the College of William and Mary.

"We did excellent compared to some of the larger schools," said Beth Javener, outdoor recreation coordinator at CCU. "With a smaller school population, we really rallied and did a great job hanging in the top of the pack."

University Recreation's mission is to help CCU be a healthy and happy place. Javener said a great way to accomplish this mission is to get the campus community outdoors, which is why University Recreation wanted to be a part of the AORE challenge. Research shows outdoor activities like running, biking, and yoga boost serotonin levels, which naturally improves one's mood.

Javener plans to have University Recreation participate in the challenge again next year with goals to place No. 1 in the Southeast region and have at least 200 participants sign up. Javener would like to offer more school-sponsored activities during the campus challenge to boost engagement and excitement among the students.

"We learned much from other schools that participated in the challenge before," said Javener. "Moving ahead, we'd love to also partner with some academic courses or programs to see if this is something that could have a supplementary place in the classroom setting like larger schools have done."

Even though this challenge has ended, Javener and University Recreation encourage the CCU community to stay active and spend time outdoors. According to Javener, spending time outdoors has proven to have positive impacts on focus, stress reduction, energy, creativity, and wellness.

To see a full list of the rankings and winners, visit oncampuschallenge.org. For more information about University Recreation, visit coastal.edu/recreation.