Engineering students went balls to the wall in a giant 21-team dodgeball tournament Friday night in the Intramural Building.

The University Park chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) sponsored the dodgeball tournament to recruit new members before club elections. Members of ASME and participants in the tournament also broke into a mental sweat by watching the movie Dodgeball before the tournament.

At 8 p.m., the teams poured into the IM Building, filling the small court area with more than 100 engineering students and a few loyal spectators. A girl dressed as Mrs. Pots, the teapot from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, was the most interesting mascot. Swaying her hips back and forth and cheering on her friends, she made everyone smile.

According to Dodgeball character Patches O'Houlihan, "Dodgeball is a sport of violence, exclusion and degradation," but there was little evidence of that Friday night, considering the large turnout and enthusiastic participation of all the players.

Team Blue Band, the Seinfeld-inspired Team Vandelay Industries and Team Left Overs were just a few of the creative groups registered in the tournament.

Nick Mercurio, ASME secretary and communications chairman, said the club held a dodgeball tournament last year and, because the response was good, the club decided to continue it this year with hopes that it will become an annual event.

The tournament rules followed the rules outlined in the movie Dodgeball, with six-person teams and single elimination, Mercurio said.

If a player was hit with a ball by the opposing team, he or she was out. If a player caught a ball from the opposing team, the opposing team's player who threw the ball was out, and the team whose player caught the ball got one of its players back on the court. A team won when all members of the opposing team were eliminated or had the most players remaining on the court when the time ran out.

While most players wore T-shirts and shorts, a few players dressed with strategy in mind.

Josh Nichols (senior-chemical engineering) dressed in pink-patterned spandex tights and a helmet.

"[My outfit] allows me to move and stretch and get around the ball when it's being thrown at me -- I need a full range of motion," Nichols said. "The pink tends to distract people."

A few teams came equipped with matching uniforms. ASME President Matt Minnig wore Daisy Duke-style short shorts and a shirt that matched his fellow players'.

The award for best dressed was split between a team of women, called The OCs: Out of Controls, who wore Hawaiian-inspired grocery bag skirts, leis and colorful accessories, and two players from Interaction of Dogs to Balls, clad in spandex tights.

While the women's team said it avoided training with wrenches like the characters in the movie, members did spend time shopping for creative outfits.

"We went to Wal-Mart, the Dollar Store, Giant -- we trained for weeks," Camille Saxberg (senior-chemical engineering) said with a laugh.

After three grueling rounds of finals, Team SS won a gold dodgeball and six Dodgeball DVDs for all the players.

"We had to overcome a lot," Andy Bauer (senior-mechanical engineering) said.

Team Balls Deep won second place and a silver dodgeball, while Interaction of Dogs to Balls was awarded a regular dodgeball for placing third.

When the festivities ended around 10:30 p.m., ASME members said they were satisfied with the turnout for this year's dodgeball event. "We'll probably get about 25 general members and five officers [from the event]," Adam Shultz, ASME social chairman, said.