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Oakie with two students
Oakie Flies into Final Four
ESF's Oakie the Acorn continues his crusade to mascot dominance in SUNY's 5th Annual Mascot Madness competition, making his first appearance in the Final Four.
In his first appearance in the Elite Eight this week, the Acorn bested Stitch the Tiger from the Fashion Institute of Technology.
The mascot of the Mighty Oaks triumphed over Brockport's Ellsworth Eagle in the first round and Damien Dane of SUNY Albany in round two.
Final Four voting opens at noon Wednesday, March 29, and runs until 4 p.m. Friday, March 31.
Votes can be cast at http://blog.suny.edu/. Voters will be asked to enter their email and then confirm their vote. Votes can be cast every 12 hours, according to the SUNY rules.
The annual online competition includes five rounds of voting and runs through April 5. The winning college will take home the traveling Mascot Madness trophy from SUNY.
Mascots were randomly placed into four SUNY regions and ranked by the number of athletic teams each mascot represents, which determined which mascots compete against each other in each round.
Last year, Oakie defeated mascots from SUNY Oswego and Orange Community College to advance to Round 2. However, Oakie fell to Canton's Roody Roo in the second round of competition.
The competition is based on a series of questions posed to the mascots prior to the tournament, including mascots' favorite campus hangout, their desired superpower, and favorite pizza topping.
Seed rankings are based on the number of teams that represent a particular campus, with enrollment data used to break any ties. Oakie currently represents 10 men's and women's teams in ESF's growing athletics program.
The intercollegiate athletics program at ESF can trace its roots all the way back to 1912, the second year of the college's existence, when students organized a Forestry Club on campus that has sponsored an intercollegiate timber sports team every year since.
Today, students can compete on in soccer, golf, cross country, timber sports (Woodsmen's Team), basketball, track and bass fishing. The Mighty Oaks are a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.