Winning the lottery is a lifelong fantasy for most, but a group of university administrators will be splitting their winnings after their fantasy became a reality last month.

Nine administrators at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions won a total of $200,000 in the D.C. Lottery’s Powerball Jackpot when they correctly guessed five of the six winning numbers drawn for the game. The money was divided into $14,000 for each of the administrators, who purchased their ticket at the Safeway store on Wisconsin Avenue.

Melissa Costanzi (FLL ’95), senior associate director at the Undergraduate Admissions Office, said some of the administrators used to participate in the lottery as a group for several years whenever the jackpot became lucrative enough.

“It has been just for fun and a great bonding activity, although we have never won more than two or three dollars,” she said.

Although the drawing for the game, which had a jackpot of $314 million, occurred on Aug. 25, the administrators did not find out that they won until a few days later.

“I knew that the jackpot was in the $300 million range, so I never expected that we would win,” said Erin Krivicky, an employee at the Undergraduate Admissions Office and one of the nine lucky winners. “Of course, I checked the paper the Sunday after the drawing to see if there was a big winner. . There was in fact a big winner, so I assumed that we hadn’t won.”

Adrienne Draper, another winner and employee at the office, said she and the others did not really pay much attention to the lottery winner until one of the participating coworkers found out four days after the day of the drawing that their ticket matched the winning numbers.

“We didn’t believe him at first, and it took us a good 10 minutes to all check the numbers online, compare them to the numbers on our ticket.and see that five out of six meant $200,000,” she said.

The other winners included Tramein Randolph, Elizabeth Admassu, Donna Peterson, Kingsley Opoku and Tamatha Robinson, who all work in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The other winner wished to remain anonymous.

“After some jumping and screaming and several phone calls to friends and family, we finally got everyone together to go over to the D.C. Lottery office,” Draper added. “We.got our checks that afternoon.”

According to the D.C. Lottery’s Web site, the odds of correctly choosing five of the six numbers are 1 in 3,563,608.

Costanzi said she was at a meeting when she heard the news.

“I had to maintain composure until the meeting ended which was definitely difficult,” she said. “The last thing that I won was my freshman year at Georgetown in 1992. I won the floor VCR in our end-of-the-year raffle. I still have it.”

Krivicky said she might buy a computer and save the rest for a down payment on a house or an apartment, while Peterson said she plans to get a new car.

“I am using my winnings to close my student loans,” Costanzi said. “I will put the remainder in savings for a rainy day.”