On Saturday, Feb. 16 Belmont’s a capella group, The Beltones, won their quarterfinal division. The group will now move on to the semifinal regional competition which will take place at Vanderbilt University on Mar., 23 at 7 p.m. This was the second year the group participated in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella since they were formed in 2009. It is the group’s first competition victory.

Their winning performance on Feb. 16 consisted of “Bottom of the River” by Delta Rae, “Barton Hollow” by The Civil Wars, “Down to the River To Pray” the traditional American hymn and “Cry Me a River” as performed by Joe Cocker. Senior religion and the arts major and president of the Beltones Robert O’Brien described the experience at quarterfinals.

“It was a little intimidating to be the only group from out of state performing at the Duke quarterfinal,” he said. “We thought that we would do well–partially because of the unique, dark feel to our set–but we never thought that we would win. Right before we went on stage we collected ourselves and told each other that the main thing to do is have fun doing what we love. We did just that, and we won!”

In the semifinal round, the Beltones will compete against nine other teams from the southern region. The winner of the semifinal round will go on to compete in the final international round held at the Town Hall in New York City.

Advance tickets for the semifinal event at Vanderbilt are available for purchase.

Belmont placed third in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Investment Challenge for its work in 2012. TVA’s Investment Challenge is an innovative partnership between TVA and universities in its service territory that provides a real-world learning experience in portfolio management. The Challenge gives teams of students hands-on experience in managing TVA stock portfolios.

Currently, 25 universities participate in the program, including Vanderbilt, UT Knoxville and Murray State. In each university’s first year of participation, the TVA awards $300,000 from their Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund for that university to manage. Belmont was awarded their grant in 2011. At Belmont, the Equity Trading Club manages the entire $300,000 portfolio. The club holds stock in each of the 10 different sectors.

Though it is primarily composed of finance and accounting majors, anyone is welcome to join the club. The team meets every Wednesday at 5 p.m., and often meets on Saturdays. “We come to together to work on our discipline and build a model,” said Rami Nofal, economics, finance and international business major and president of the Equity Trading Club. The clubs hopes to put together a long-term operations manual in order to ensure the group’s success in the future.

MTV’s 24-hour college network, mtvU, announced last week that The Lonely Biscuits, a band consisting of Belmont students, took home the first-ever Chevrolet Sonic College Artist Woodie Award, which honors the best emerging musicians on campus. After winning the online voting competition, the band opened the “2013 mtvU Woodie Awards” at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas on March 14.  MTV and mtvU will air the “2013 Woodie Awards” special on Sunday, March 17 at 7 p.m. CT, and viewers will get a glimpse of The Lonely Biscuits during the half-hour show. The band’s journey to Austin will also be profiled on-air on mtvU, MTV and on MTV.com.

“It’s an honor to win the first ever Chevrolet Sonic College Artist Woodie Award,” said The Lonely Biscuits. “This is huge for us. We’ve only been a band for a year and a half, so this is definitely the biggest opportunity we’ve gotten, and we’re just hoping to take advantage of it and have an awesome time at SXSW.”

The Lonely Biscuits, formerly known as Gravy and the Biscuits, have been together since September of 2011. Founding members Grady Wenrich and Sam Gidley were roommates in Belmont’s Maddox Hall, where they started jamming and making music in their dorm room. John Paterini, current lead singer of the band came into the picture in September after hearing some of their tunes from his room across the hall. Then, two months later, Nick Byrd joined as an official Biscuit, playing bass guitar. Blending soul, funk and pop with rap, The Lonely Biscuits have created a unique sound that appeals to a wide array of people.