The collegiate level of the highly competitive sport of paintball has a new name to fear – and that name is Kent State.

Coming from behind, Kent State’s Paintball Team won it’s regional championships this weekend in Laotto, Indiana – beating 13 other schools from all over the Midwest, including Ohio University, Miami of Ohio and Akron University.

The scars of victory – swelling welts about the size of the medals they would win – didn’t seem to bother the Kent players, who ran around Paintball Plex screaming with excitement. Neither did the roar of their weapons, which sounded like a film score from Saving Private Ryan.

With the help of over 24 cases of paintballs, which contain about 40,000 balls total, Kent’s seven competing players fought their way up the ladder of the competition. The team fought off other teams for ten hours beginning at 7 a.m. and ending around 5 p.m.

Their budget allowed for 15 cases, but all seven players dipped into their own bank accounts to pay for the ammunition to fuel their victory. All in all, the team as a whole spent $2,000,” according to team president Joey Terry.

“We need more paint, no matter the cost,” said Terry, sophomore visual communication design major, as the team began to advance through the competition.

“Don’t die stupidly, … time counts,” said Yasser Hanbali, sophomore exploratory major at the Stark campus, as the team took their position on the field for the semi-finals.

In the end, there were seven first-place medals hanging from the necks of the Kent State team members. The team members were also awarded a trophy that was painted a remarkable blue and gold, the school colors of Kent State.

“I’m going to be smiling for weeks,” said Kiril Grozdanovski, sophomore exploratory major at Stark campus. “Not to anyone in particular” he said as he stared at the metal hanging from his neck.

var so = new SWFObject(‘http://www.staterinteractive.com/player.swf’,’mpl’,’665′,’450′,’9′);

so.addParam(‘allowscriptaccess’,’always’);

so.addParam(‘allowfullscreen’,’true’);

so.addParam(‘flashvars’,’&file=Paintball_JB_22513.flv&image=http://www.staterinteractive.com/photos/spring13/0131tv2.jpg&frontcolor=6666FF&lightcolor=EEEEEE&skin=http://www.staterinteractive.com/snel.swf&streamer=rtmp://flashmedia.kent.edu/fms-jmc/kentWired’);

so.write(‘tv2news’);

Contact Jacob Byk at [email protected].