The cheering and sounds of drilling around the Old Main rock attracted students, visitors and teachers to the annual drilling competition held Friday by the mining and geological engineering department.
Many students were unsure what exactly was happening, but when they followed their ears to the Old Main competition rock they found themselves witnessing an annual competition.
"I was walking on the Mall and heard drilling, but I had no idea what was going on," said Dani Edelman, an elementary education sophomore. "I walked over here to see what they were doing."
Each competitor approached the rock with a serious and concentrated look on their face and took a few seconds to finalize their strategies before picking up the 130-pound jack-leg drill used to drill holes in mines.
The crowd cheered after the judge announced mining junior Tim George's score of 21 inches and proclaimed him the winner.
Once George got his hole started, he had no trouble finishing the two minutes of drilling without any slip-ups.
"This is kind of like the drilling we do down in the (UA's San Xavier student) mine, so I had some practice," said John Featherston, a mining and civil engineering junior.
Some participants struggled to get their holes started, but once they got that accomplished, the drilling became easy.
For others, however, getting started was the easy part. Many competitors let the force of the drill get the best of them and they lost control, letting the drill come out of the hole, and having to start all over again.
"My bit came out and I lost control. I recovered well, but if I hadn't lost the steel I could have been the winner," said Featherston, whose hole was 7 1/2 inches.
Men and women competed separately. The winners, George and Ana Hoffnagle, were thrown into the Old Main fountain by their competitors.
Hoffnagle, a chemical engineering senior and not academically affiliated with the mining program, said she found out about the competition from friend Jessica Morgan, a mining engineering senior, who also competed.
"I heard about the competition from Morgan, and thought it would be fun to try out," Hoffnagle said.
Even though she won, Hoffnalge said the drilling was harder than she expected and more difficult than the practice she got before competing.
"I was amazed that this rock was so much harder to drill in to," Hoffnagle said. "It was denser than the practice one and definitely not as easy."
The mining competition is open to students from all majors and takes place annually at the huge rock by Old Main.