The “cats returned” for this year’s Homecoming, but the women of Sigma Theta Chi were also back for a consecutive win in the women’s social club float category.

Women’s social club Sigma Theta Chi and the Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Club took home first-place victories in their respective categories. In addition, men’s social club Gamma Sigma Phi took first place in the men’s category.

Men’s social club Frater Sodalis, women’s social club Ko Jo Kai and Team 55 were the second-place winners.

The theme “Siggie Diner Girls” took Sigma Theta Chi to another victory.

Brad Mitchell, senior engineering major from Abilene, and Mark Pearson, junior kinesiology major from Abilene, designed and constructed the big pieces on the float. Other contributors were the 68 Squigs, women pledging to be a Siggie, who participated in the parade, said Allison Dennis, Siggie keeper of the key.

“Our float was colorful and bright as well as impressive in sheer size and structure,” said Dennis, junior communication disorders major from Garland. “There was also a lot of not only Siggie pride, but ACU pride shown throughout the float. The victory is so sweet solely because of the way the Squigs bonded through working so hard to make the best float they possibly could.”

Erika Wong, junior interior design major from Georgetown, and Madison Hancock, senior management major from Lucas, were in charge of the Kojie’s “Egyptian cat-themed” float.

Wong, the junior representative, along with Jaden Dement, senior interior design major from Baird, designed and constructed the golden sphinx that was the centerpiece on the float. Other women of KJK helped paint the different pieces and put the rest of the float together.

Wong said a major contributing factor to the second-place victory was the unity and bond of this year’s KJK pledge class.

The NuNus “built each other up, opened their hearts to one another, and worked so hard to not only succeed but to make this weekend a fun and sweet experience,” Wong said. “While placing in this competition was a great victory for club, nothing can beat seeing our pledge class come together and accomplish what they did.”

The last time the Kojies had a victory in the parade was in 2013 with Victoria Garza (’13) and Jessi Andersen (’14).

Frater Sodalis second place position was particularly sweet to pledge dad Allen Martin because this year marks Frats 75th year on campus.

“we took a different spin on ‘Cats are Back’ and were basically saying, ‘Of course we’re back; we’ve never left,’” said Martin, junior English and political science major from Abilene.

Frat pledge Matt Williams, senior computer science major from Oak Park, California, was in charge of the float. Justin Ford, sophomore nursing major from Boerne, did most of the painting for the ‘75th’ logo on each side. The Frats also recruited Laurel Drain, junior multimedia major from Fort Worth and member of Tri Kappa Gamma, to assist in writing the songs and chants, said Martin.

“The reason the float was so excellent is because they worked together seamlessly, respected each other and poured themselves into producing something great, something that they should be proud of,” Martin said.

Winning in the non-social club category, the AES Club float designed the float to represent a football field, complete with goalposts. The members, dressed in paunchy cowboy gear, put jerseys and cat ears on goats, inspired by the Homecoming theme.

“Who doesn’t love goats?” said Marissa Ballard, president of the AES club and senior animal science major from San Jose, California. “Having them dressed up just makes it all the more fun and the kids especially really enjoy it. We might be one of the smaller clubs on campus but we really show up at events such as this to make our name known.”

Geoffrey Jasper, junior animal science major from Dripping Springs, Audrey Olvera, senior animal science major from Austin, Tyler Henderson, junior environmental science major from Waco, and Hannah Dockal, undeclared major from Windcrest, were at every workday and helped get the work done on the float, Ballard said. They each appeared during the parade holding a goat at some point.

The AES Club has won first place at the parade in the non-social club category for the past three years.