"Mud, sweat and cheers"

If someone told you to duct tape your ankles this weekend, don't be alarmed - they were only trying to help.

The advice might sound intended for someone trekking through the wild, but at UB this time of year, it's advice that more than a few students wish they'd heeded going into one of the world's biggest mud-volleyball tournaments.

At the 22nd annual Oozfest on Saturday, some people went as far as to cover their shoes in duct tape entirely, and for good reason: the field-turned-mud pit on St. Rita's Lane has absorbed so many shoes into its muddy bowels that grounds crews still consistently find buried shoes when they plow the field in following springs.

This year's festival/volleyball tournament was home to 104 teams, and although registration started at 8 a.m., many volunteers and others came as early as 6 a.m. to start setting things up.

DJs from campus radio station WRUB provided music throughout the day that could be heard clearly across Lake LaSalle. The tunes, along with the moderate warmth and sunshine (as opposed to last year's cold and rain), provided some motivation for the competitors, but many would have come rain or shine.

Among the diehards was Curtis Magnuszewski, team-member of the Poneka Puppets, who also competed in last year's rainy mess.

"The most fun part was wrestling between games," the senior business administration major said.

The Poneka Puppets tried to class up the competition a little bit, sporting uniforms of shirts and ties, though bringing a little class to a sporting event so focused on mud is no easy task.

Magnuszewski was surprised by a second-place overall finish in the competition.

"We knew we'd be competitive, but we didn't think we'd come this far," Magnuszewski said.

Lyndsey Weilert, a junior health and human services major, was a scorekeeper in charge of one of the eight brackets of the mud madness.

"It was great, seeing all the teams come out and actually play, with such nice weather, sticking it out all day," Weilert said. "It was a lot easier than last year because we had better weather."

Jessica Colwell, sophomore political science major, acted as a "runner" in charge of coordinating the results of the 15-minute matches between the referees and the scorekeepers.

"Everyone is relaxing right before finals, and it's a good time," she said. "There is a lot of work, but it's not stressful. It's well worth it."

Colwell said she enjoyed the spirit of fun in the UB tradition, which is so strong that alumni who've graduated a decade ago still participate.

"I'm trying to stay impartial," she said. "It's interesting to see teams who've played for lots of years."

The Crazy Aces are one such team. Placing fourth this year, the Aces were not new to the Oozfest finals -- they'd placed first both last year and the year before.

Larry Smith, junior accounting major, said that friends from Long Island even made the trip up to Buffalo for the fun in the mud.

"Competition was a lot better this year, it was a good time," he said.

Smith agreed with teammate Bill Stubbs, '04 graduate of SUNY Binghamton, that the Aces would reclaim the championship next year.

"It will be ours again, oh yes," Stubbs said.

Scott Kanehl, senior environmental design major, said he really enjoyed competing against all of the teams, including the Shepherds and the Crazy Aces.

"But they cried like bitches after we beat them," he said. "It took us three years to do it, but we did."

Kanehl's team, called Team Without Their Crutch, made it to the finals all three years in the competition, but this was their first No. 1 victory.

The University Student Alumni Board sponsored the event, which this year was titled "Grab a Buddy and Let's Get Muddy."

Root beer pong games, a chicken wing eating contest, leapfrog and tug of war were also offered throughout the day, but none of these minor competitions offered quite as much fun or glory as the main event.

Although not everyone got to go home with a medal or trophy, everyone who attended got to leave covered in a few pounds of mud, which for many, was a satisfying prize in itself.