A&M wins Dental Olympics
Texas A&M School of Dentistry won the 2023 Dental Olympics last weekend in Dallas.
The A&M team placed first with 82 points, ahead of UTHealth School of Dentistry in Houston with 62 points. The Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine in El Paso placed third with 45 points. All events were held March 25 at Crawford Memorial Park.
“I liked competing against the other schools and meeting people from the other schools,” said DH2 Samantha Wright, who played on the volleyball, softball and basketball teams. “Also, getting to know each other here better, too, was really nice. We were all integrated into teams. We were able to learn more about each other as peers, you know?”
One hundred A&M dental school students participated, along with about 40 from each of the other two competing schools. A&M won first, second and third place in pickleball; first place overall in soccer and tennis; and second place in basketball, softball, kickball and flag football. Students Reed Ragsdale and Holden Rivera took second and third place respectively in the 5k . Teams also competed in volleyball, golf and spikeball.
“I think we all realized we were a little older than we thought we were,” said D3 Shahriar Ramezani, who played on the football and soccer teams. “We were hurting after, but we got the job done. It was fun. We had a great time.”
This was the first time the Dental Olympics was held since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m so happy Dental Olympics is back,” said D4 Nina Coto-Mejia, one of the event’s organizers. “I remember how excited I was to participate in Dental Olympics as a first year. Unfortunately, COVID hit half-way through D1, and it put a pause on this event. This year we were told that Dental Olympics was being revived and that we would be hosting it. As one of the D4 sports chairs, I wanted to make sure this happened. It definitely took a lot of coordination between our sports chairs, staff and students from the other dental schools, but we did it! And in my opinion, it was a huge success.”
