Daily Skiff

Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Michael Bou-Nacklie Freshman premajor Jake Slaton prepares to drop his 'egg-quipment' from a 50-foot mobile platform during Thursday afternoon's Red Bull Gravity Challenge. Slaton and his teammates, Josh Noble, junior biology major, and Matthew Brown, freshman economics major, took first place in the event. They were in costume as the 'defensive line' of a foosball team and competed for Phi Kappa Sigma.

The lawn outside Clark Hall on Thursday was the scene of the first Red Bull Gravity Challenge in the U.S.

Contestants built protective casings for their eggs, which were then dropped from 50 feet. Winners were determined on how little the egg was damaged, the creativity of the team and their 'egg-quipment.'

Designs for the 'egg-quipment' ranged from a papier-mache baby to a volcano filled with baking soda.

The winners of Thursday's event were freshman economics major Matthew Brown, junior biology major Josh Noble and freshman pre-major Jake Slaton of Phi Kappa Sigma.

The team won a trip to the Flugtag '07 contest in Nashville, Tenn., and a wakeboard from KISSFM, said Matthew Appleby, field marketing manager for the Red Bull event.

Second-place winners won the teams combined weight in Red Bull- roughly 500 pounds. The third-place winners won half of the teams weight in Red Bull ­- roughly 230 pounds, Appleby said.

Judges included baseball team head coach Jim Schlossnagle, soccer head coach Dan Abdalla and DJs Billy the Kid and Pooh from KISSFM.

The flugtag contest consists of a similar concept as Thursday's event. Contestants design a device and pilot it off of a platform suspended over water, according to the Red Bull Web Site.

The first flugtag was held in Vienna, Austria, in 1991; 35 flugtags have been held around the world since then, according to the Red Bull Web Site.

"TCU is one of our favorite campuses; they sell a lot of Red Bull, and we just want repay the favor," Appleby said.

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