Roommates and long-time friends Nick McLaren and Ryan Jennings have been locked in bitter combat for years, both struggling to answer one simple question — who can accumulate the largest pile of T-shirts?

While not an ordinary contest between friends, McLaren’s and Jennings’ race for the biggest mound of laundry can not be supplemented by just buying new shirts. The threads that the two friends compete for must be earned.

Iowa State offered 35 intramural events to its students during the 2013-2014 school year, each one culminating in the distribution of a championship prize — a T-shirt.

It is these articles of clothing over which McLaren and Jennings have teamed up and squared off with each other to compete for since they were freshmen. Four years later, the two have racked up some staggering numbers.

McLaren, a senior in computer engineering, holds the most intramural championships of any current Cyclone. He boasts 23 individual and team championships combined, ranging from curling to what he described as a “mini-triathalon” dubbed by Iowa State as the Adventure Race.

McLaren’s roommate Jennings, a senior in mechanical engineering, is only two behind at 21 championships.

McLaren’s 23 T-shirts ranks as the third highest in ISU intramural history behind former students John Crossett, who is in second place with 24 titles, and Tyler Shugart, who is the school’s all-time leader with a whopping 28 intramural championships.

McLaren was excited when he believed he may have been the record holder, but when he found out he was in third, he did not take the news lightly.

“It is fairly disappointing that I am not in first,” McLaren said. “But, you have to expect that there are more students in school, so there is more competition, which will drive totals down.”

McLaren said he still has the chance to win up to three more titles, and said if the opportunity presents itself, he will push hard to finish in second place all-time at 25, or at least tie Crossett at 24.

McLaren had planned to head to Madison, Wisconsin, this summer to start his new job in healthcare software development, but considering students are free to add to their running intramural totals while attending graduate school, McLaren said he may need to rethink his plans.

The opportunity to move into first place is not the only motivation for a possible, although unlikely, adjustment to his life’s trajectory. The primary motive is maintaining his lead over Jennings.

“I thought about graduate school a little,” McLaren said. “Not even for the record, but just because Ryan is going to graduate school and I did not want him to pass me.”

Jennings, who is on an academic fast track that will award him with a masters degree after only five years, has the benefit of an extra intramural season — an opportunity of which he said he plans to take full advantage.

“Absolutely I am going after [first place],” Jennings said. “It will be tough without [McLaren] here, my running mate. It will be tough to get the teams together, but I give myself a 50/50 shot.”

Jennings also said that while he may have the extra year to compete, he only split his time between studying and intramural sports at a two to one ratio in favor of schoolwork, while McLaren said his time allocation was closer to an even split.

“That might even be generous towards the time I spent on schoolwork [compared to intramural events],” McLaren said.

Linda Marticke has been the Iowa State intramural coordinator for 38 years and said that McLaren is one of the most devout intramural participants she has even encountered.

At a recent event, Marticke joked with McLaren that because he had invested so much time into intramural sports, he should try to get them classified by the university as a minor and count his participation as an area of study.

That higher time commitment to the art of the intramural may have provided the edge to McLaren in head-to-head title match-ups with Jennings.

“We had some championship game encounters in some coed sports where we were on different teams,” Jennings said. “We met in the finals in coed doubles Ping-Pong and in pickleball. [McLaren] won both of them.”

As competitive as the two friends are, McLaren said that intramural sports have helped them remain good friends and build on that friendship through common interests.

“Competition is a huge part for me,” McLaren said. “You can go play for fun, but people are not as invested in it. When there is a goal, something you can show for it, it makes people care more and that is more fun.”

Jennings echoed McLaren’s comments, adding that the relationships he has built from meeting and playing with and against so many different people has made his quest to stockpile intramural T-shirts a fun and enjoyable one.

Jennings also said that one of the best things about playing in an intramural sport is the debates it creates for later conversations, like those had between himself and McLaren as they would rehash the highlights in their apartment living room in the wake of each event.

McLaren said that when he leaves for Wisconsin, intramural sports will rank high on the list of things he will miss about college. However, the company he is going to work for offers an intramural program, which McLaren said should help to ease his transition.

Marticke summed up what she believes is so attractive about intramural sports, not only to McLaren and Jennings, but to all the participants she has seen over her nearly four decades as intramural coordinator at Iowa State.

“For people who played sports in high school, it gives them another outlet even though they are not at a division I, varsity level,” Matricke said. “People miss their sports and they love competing. Intramural sports are a way to relax and get away from the pressures of studies and academics for a while.”