A team from the University of Nevada, Reno has achieved an amazing accomplishment.

The Mackay Muckers, the University's mining team competed in the 45th Intercollegiate Mining Games, which they traveled all the way to Australia.

"Overall this was a huge accomplishment for all the women, especially the men's team," said Natalie Rubio, Mackay Muckers President. "This was the men's teams first competition ever."

The women's team was victorious as they were announced as world champions with them taking home the overall world championship trophy. 

The men's team finished 14th which with their lack of experience, proved to be a pretty impressive feat.

Everyone on the men's team beat personal records for themselves and provided a learning opportunity for future competitions.

The competition included seven different competitions. Mucking, which is filling up an ore cart with muck and racing it up and down a track.

Another is trackstand which is building a railroad set. Jackleg drilling, which consists of drilling holes into concrete. 

Swede saw is where each team member saws through a 6x6 piece of wood using a bow saw. 

Other events included gold panning and surveying.

While the physicality of the competitions was difficult, they told us there were other hurdles that had to get through. 

"The biggest struggle that we had in the challenge was fundraising just because fundraising is a lot of hard work, and this was a very expensive trip to take 10 students," Rubio said.

However, the team was able to get the funds in order to have the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"It was an amazing experience we spent over a year fundraising for the event and gained almost $30,000 to go," said Karlee Bolle, Mackay Muckers member.

The Muckers aren't an exclusive team and welcome more members to join, however for those who may be interested in joining the Muckers, they say you better get ready to battle it out.

 "Definitely get ready for the long days and when you're doing hands steel too many times and you mess up your hand by smacking it up too many times and it swells up get used to that and get used to the pain going through," said Rafael Echeverria, Mackay Muckers member.  

Now the Muckers host the Mackay games this September, however they are already fundraising for their next international trip in 2025.

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