A group of eight Malaysian students from Iowa State traveled to Madison, Wis. to compete in the 2011 Midwest Games from May 27 to May 29.

The Midwest Games is a series of athletic tournaments for Malaysian students throughout the Midwest region and has been the largest annual gathering of Malaysian students in the Midwest since its inception in 1970.

The team, which competed under the name “Iowa State”, placed third overall in volleyball, after going 5-1.

The Iowa State team’s only loss came in the semifinals to Rochester, the eventual champions of the tournament.

“We are all in the Malaysian Club, and they sent us a newsletter to let us know that they were have the Midwest Games,” said Cezlynn See, senior in chemical engineering, of how the team came to learn about the games. “It was really fun, and we played well and won some games.”

See’s team competed in the coed division of the volleyball tournament, though according to the Midwest Games rules, it was not madatory for teams to be coed, just strongly encouraged.

This was the first year that this group of ISU students have competed at the Midwest Games, but not the first year Iowa State was represented as a school.

Multiple teams from Iowa State have gone to the Midwest Games before, competing in both volleyball and table tennis.

While this year’s tournament was held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the site of next year’s event is yet to be decided.