AMES, Iowa - Iowa State's nationally ranked paintball team is going to the College Paintball National Championships to be held April 20-22 in Dallas.
Currently No. 14 in the national rankings, Iowa State is playing its best paintball of the year as the nationals approach.
"We placed first in the Air Assault Paintball tournament in Minneapolis and fourth in the Metro Paintball Games in Council Bluffs," said vice president of the club Ian O'Connor of the team's most recent tournament results.
Paintball is a field game played by two teams competing to capture the others' flag while eliminating the other team's players by shooting them with a capsule of paint. The sport is played by more than 300 college clubs around the country as well as hundreds of high school and adult clubs.
O'Connor said the ISU team's success was a little unexpected. The team has many younger players. According to O'Connor, the team has "very much improved" from the beginning of the year.
"Things have really been clicking in the last two tournaments," said O'Connor. "As the year has progressed, we've really gotten used to each other's style of play. As the season has advanced, each player has realized his role on the team and what he needs to do in order for us to be successful."
The team is able to finance the trip to Dallas through paint sales and field fees they charge team members. They also have a sponsor and get funding from the Government of the Student Body.
O'Connor says the drive down to Dallas will be long, but once they get there, they are going to represent Iowa State well.
"It's a great sense of pride when representing Iowa State in front of hundreds of people on the national stage," said O'Connor.
Players on the team are Craig Sutton, freshman in architecture from Arlington Heights, Ill.; Ian Hustvet, freshman in journalism and mass communications from Waukon; Ian O'Connor, sophomore in finance from Muscatine; John Crossett, sophomore in mechanical engineering from Vadnais Heights, Minn.; Jacob Britt, sophomore in computer science from East Moline, Ill.; Austin Rader, sophomore in business from Winterset; and John Barney, junior in history from Lamoni.