MU’s Korean Students Association headed to the University of Kansas for its annual sports competition Oct. 22.

KSA President Su Hwan Lee said this competition has been in place for 10 years. He added that though KU and MU are old football rivals, this event allowed the two schools to bond rather than just compete.

This year, basketball, soccer, Dutch ball and a relay race had been planned for the competition.

MU’s KSA teams lost the basketball game by four points by a score of 61-57 and soccer by two goals, 4-2.

For Dutch ball, MU and KU made a new plan that unified MU men with KU women, and vice versa. Men could not throw the ball. Their main role was to block for female players. MU and KU intentionally made this change to have more interaction between MU and KU students.

After all three games, a relay race was planned. Since the runners from each team were exhausted from the soccer match, the race did not occur.

Losing or winning was not the main issue for the teams. Instead, the focus was to have time together and interact.

“I enjoy competition with our traditional rival KU,” MU senior Young Kim said. “At the same time, I enjoy two communities being together, and I feel like this event is more like developing friendship rather then competition.”

MU freshman Hyeongwoo Kan said he was not satisfied with the outcome of the game, but thought playing with KU was more meaningful.

“We lost,” he said. “It sucks to lose, but we weren’t prepared, never practiced and all MU good players did not come. However, regardless of the outcome, it is good to have a game with KU.”

After the matches, there was a Korean barbecue party and the MVP awards for sports players were given out. To emphasize the theme of the competition, the MVP awards were granted to players from both teams.

For MU, soccer MVP was given to Su Hwan Lee, basketball MVP was given to Kan and Dutch ball MVP was given to Yuna Eun.

“It was a well-planned competition to bring KU and MU together,” KU senior Melissa Brooks said. “I think this event would positively affect the relationship between KU and MU.”

Even though the competition has continued for 10 years and built stronger bonds between students from the two universities, the interaction between the two schools has been gradually less frequent.

Former KU KSA President Jayden Seo said the event would have been better if participation were higher.

“Some of MU’s best players didn’t come to KU,” he said. “It wasn’t that fun. However, it was good to have both groups to build a good bond.”

He said the groups would benefit from more frequent meetings.

“We should go to MU more often, and MU should go to KU more often,” he said.