A team of female students from the University of Missouri-Rolla won a world championship in “mucking” at the Intercollegiate Mining Competition March 24 in Tucson, Ariz.         

Mucking events are based on mining techniques used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Students compete in timed events like gold panning, surveying, hand-mucking, hand-steeling, track-standing, Swede sawing and jackleg drilling.         

The debris left over from a mining blast is known as a muck pile, and that’s where the term mucking comes from.         

UMR sent four teams to the competition in Arizona, two men’s teams and two women’s teams. The women’s “A” team beat out Montana Tech for the title. The men’s “A” team finished fourth.         

Approximately 30 teams from around the world participate annually in the Intercollegiate Mining Competition. UMR won world titles in men’s and women’s mucking in 2004 and 2005. Men’s and women’s teams from UMR finished second in 2006.        

The host university for the 2006 championships, the Western Australia School of Mines, won the overall men’s and women’s titles last year. The competition rotates to one of four locations each year: Kalgoorlie, Australia; Tucson, Ariz.; Rolla, Mo.; Butte, Mont.; and Reno, Nev.         

Female members of UMR’s 2007 championship mucking team include: Rio Amick, a senior in mining engineering and geophysics from Jefferson City, Mo.; Antoinette Donovan, a senior in mining engineering from Homewood, Ill.; Jennifer Fizer, a junior in mining engineering from Slater, Mo.; Carolyn Grondin, a senior in business administration from Ware, Mo.; and Brittany Parker, a junior in mining engineering from Johnston, Iowa.         

Members of UMR’s 2007 men’s “A” team include: Matt Angle, a senior in mining engineering from Rolla; Alex Hofstetter, a senior in mining engineering from Labadie, Mo.; Adam Kresler, a senior in mining engineering from Winter Park, Colo.; Klaus Nunemacher, a senior in mining engineering from Palmyra, Mo.; Brendon Weidner, a senior in mining engineering from Foristell, Mo.; and Nathan Woods, a senior in mining engineering from Nixa, Mo.