An ISU intramural flag football team took their competition to a different level when they competed at the Army Reserve Midwest Regional Flag Football tournament.

The X-tramural tournament at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln Nov. 18th and 19th gave intramural flag football teams a chance to compete against students from around the country.

Members of the ISU team Studweiser included team captain Scott August, Dax Wedemeyer, Chris Richter, Louis McQueen, Rick Peterson, Dustin Mueller, Jeremy Vardaman and Matt Cummings.

They made it to the championship game against the Nebraska team which qualified both of them for the national tournament at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Dec. 28. However, they are choosing not to participate because of costs.

August, senior in journalism and mass communications, said they competed last year and had so much fun they wanted to go back this year.

“There were teams there from all over the place — from different colleges,” August said. “You get to meet different people, and it’s just fun to compete.”

Saturday, the teams were organized into pools of three. The top two in each pool moved to a 32-team bracket tournament to play Sunday. The ISU team had to play six games to get to the championship game.

McQueen, junior in business, said the quarterfinal game was probably the highlight of their tournament. They played a Minnesota Rugby team and were tied in the last minutes of the game.

“We scored our winning touchdown with eight seconds left,” McQueen said.

In the championship game, they played the team who hosted the tournament, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bulldozers and lost with a final score of 19-13.

The game was played at night on the Nebraska football field. “It had been snowing, but mostly there was a lot of wind,” McQueen said. “It made it really hard to play because we were so worn out.”

The ISUteam made an improvement from last year when they finished fifth place. The team was really pleased with their performance, said Wedemeyer, senior in business.

“I think we outperformed what we should have done. Finishing second was more than we would have expected, and we didn’t even expect to do as well as we did last year,” he s aid.

Wedemeyer said they didn’t really practice aside from participating in the intramural tournament here.

“It would ruin our style,” Wedemeyer said. “We’d huddle up and say somebody run this way and that way, and then see what happens.”

August said they also play well together because they’re all such good friends.

“We’re all on the same page, and we know what we’re doing and all have confidence in each other,” he said.

The competition level was lot higher than it is here, August said. “You’ve got the best teams coming in from each college, so they’re more well-coached and know what they’re doing.”

But participants need to be pretty serious about it, he said. “Otherwise you’ll get beat pretty bad.”

Intramural coordinator Garry Greenlee said the competition is similar to what the clubs and varsity levels have but on a lot smaller scale.

“It doesn’t happen that often, so it’s nice to see it happen occasionally,” he said. “It’s always nice to see students get recognized.”

The tournament cost about $125, and with hotel costs, uniforms and food, each team member paid about $45 each.