Students were gathered together east of the Alumni Center, wearing only T-shirts, despite the 30-degree weather.

Waving their arms wildly, they yelled about “Finding Nemo,” the Power Rangers and Cherry Pie. These students were participating in Iowa State’s annual Yell Like Hell competition.

“I used to hear the noise, you know, the yelling, and wouldn’t know what was going on, because I live on the other side of campus,” said Ebby Luvaga, event judge and senior lecturer in agricultural economy.

Yell Like Hell is a competition the greek community coordinates during Homecoming. Sororities and fraternities team up and undergo three rounds of elimination. The first round was Sunday.

Seven of the 13 teams moved on to the next round Wednesday. The teams moving on from the first round were “Finding Nemo’s True Colors,” “Dude! Where’s my Colors?,” “The Bad News Bear,” “Shrek Goes Bold with Cardinal and Gold,” “Remembering the Cardinal and Gold,” “Go, Go Cyclone Rangers” and “Greek Side Story.”

Only three teams will move on after Wednesday.

The teams put on five-minute skits covering this year’s Homecoming theme of “show your true colors,” which took on a new meaning among the staff.

“The rest of Homecoming Central, they were out there for like three hours helping me out,” said Katie Hartranft, Yell Like Hell coordinator and senior in liberal studies. “They came in and were, like, ‘my true colors are purple, I’m so cold.’”

Along with representing this year’s Homecoming theme, teams are required to incorporate the school’s fight song and a random word which they are assigned 20 minutes before they perform.

“It’s a great display of Iowa State spirit, because it’s a really great way to incorporate all the great traditions, famous people, events,” Hartanft said.

Teams had been practicing six hours per week since the beginning of the school year.

“It was kind of unnerving, but it was a lot of fun,” said Josie Nelsen, team member of “Larry Rotten and the True Colors” and sophomore in industrial engineering.

Teams that do move on are chosen by three different judges and are rated by certain criteria.

“First of all, did they pay very close attention to the theme and incorporate it into their skit? And, secondly, was the whole group energetic from beginning to end — like they don’t start off really good and dwindle off in the end. And all the choreography, if there was something really creative or unique there,” Luvaga said.