EAST LANSING - Meridian Township's "Primed Meridian" team took home first place in the large group category.

The Smart Commute Challenge is a two week event run by the Mid-Michigan Environmental Action Council. The program is designed to save energy, reduce traffic flow, and increase physical activity. Not to mention, it involves a little friendly competition.

The 34 members who made up "Primed Meridian" took first for the large group category, where they logged in over 1,000 smart commutes in the two week duration. Meridian Township Associate Planner/"Primed Meridian" team captain Rick Brown accepted the award on behalf of the team and admitted, "we broke our record from last year, we had some great competition from cattle and MSU library, the numbers were really close, so fortunately we were able to pull off the victory and win this year."

Rick Brown also took home third place for having 77 individual smart commutes.