The room is dark and rock’n roll music plays as the maniacal Captain Crunch readies his next victim. The audience watches in delightful anticipation of what is to come next, but the students who created that so called victim do not share the same feeling. They have spent the last month building a bridge to enter in this year’s Mohawk Bridge Competition, just to see it destroyed in mere seconds as the crowd cheers and the Captain smiles.

This year’s winner, third year transportation technology student Ben Gammie, has entered the competition before and knows the feeling of watching your creation get crushed; but he also knows how valuable the prize is.

“I was in it two years ago, I entered a bridge and came third overall. This year I just tried to improve a bit on that design,” explained Gammie. “I know the last [prize] was as-you-wish money, but this one is possibly more towards tuition; I know where it’s going.”

Bridges are placed on a scale that steadily applies weight until they inevitably snap, much to the enjoyment of all those in attendance and the mustached Captain Crunch. The load the bridge carries is divided by its weight; bridges must hold at least 1,000 times their own weight to qualify for the competition; Ben’s bridge held 4,168 times its own weight.

It was the competition’s 25^th anniversary, with a record 99 bridges being destroyed. The school also hosts a bridge competition with local high school students.

“The idea is that were promoting the college as well - it’s a promotion for the college in that the students see it, they see what happens here and see the fun side of it,” said Captain Crunch. “Whether they come into engineering or not is not important as long as they come.”

Also taking place during the bridge competition was the “Mad 4 Cad” competition, where students use AutoCAD drafting software to see who can reproduce images the fastest. Taking home the $500 prize for first place was architectural tech student, Eddie Partito.