Oredigger Challenge Recap

Students and faculty came together on the Saturday morning of Homecoming for the first annual Oredigger Challenge. The morning started off a bit chilly, but the air was thick with anticipation. As soon as the the Mines Activity Council blew the whistle the teams were off. The first round consisted of six challenges: balancing an egg on a stationary football, followed by a rather messy gummy bear flour excavation, then putting on a frozen t-shirt, passing a lifesaver with a straw, trivia, and lastly students and faculty put their engineering skills to the test and had to build a water bottle tower. One team of professors came prepared with goggles for the gummy bear and flour and blow torches for melting their frozen t-shirt, some may call that cheating but at Mines we call that good engineering. The team known as The Freight Train chugged it’s way to first after the first round, finishing in 23 minutes. Only the top ten teams could continue on to the second round.

Tensions rising, the second round began with a three part task; mud, ramen noodles, and ice in baby pools had to be removed by specific body parts. Next came the three legged race. Many of the teams were seen practicing beforehand to make sure they would be coordinated for the actual race. This event decided who would make it to the final challenge so the stakes were high. At the end of the second round the Res Life team and the Freight Trains were the champs, and moved onto the final and deciding challenge, a simple tug of war.

But this wasn’t just any tug of war, in the middle was a slick tarp covered in blue and white paint. Upon the start the Res Life team had an extraordinary start and quickly pulled the once unstoppable Freight Trains into the paint. Pull by pull the Freight Train team members fell into the paint, and within a matter of moments Res Life won the Oredigger challenge. There was slight questioning that the wearing of illegal shoes (a.k.a. cleats) may have been involved in their win, but because the Freight Train team had such great sportsmanship they let it slide and congratulated Res Life with paint covered hugs and high fives.

The Oredigger Challenge was a great way to spend homecoming morning and displayed the spirited side of Mines.