By Kenny Sokan, News Correspondent 

Ice shavings were flying every which way at Krentzman Quad as students worked vigorously at their carvings Saturday afternoon at the 19th Annual International Students Scholar Institute (ISSI) Ice Carving Competition.

“It’s one of the first of many events for Carnevale that ISSI has over a two month period,” Amy Wooldridge, senior assistant director of ISSI, said.

Ten competing groups, ranging from three to five people, were brought out one by one from Ell Hall to draw an outline of their piece.

Afterwards, professional ice sculptor Eric Fontecchio used a chainsaw to cut out their figures and cut off any excess ice to help speed along the sculpting process.

“It’s also my job to give advice and tips on scaling and proper proportion sizes to help them along,” Fontecchio said.

When the last remaining team’s figure had been cut out and shaped, the others were brought out. The teams were given 45 minutes to perfect their sculptures. Music played while they worked, from classics like “Dancing in the Moonlight” by King Harvest to the 2013 pop hit “Timber” by Pitbull featuring Ke$ha, which drew out an even bigger crowd.

Paws the husky came out to show support and when one team didn’t show up, Paws and a companion decided to make use of the absent team’s idle block of ice.

Paws posed while his friend worked on a portrait, using his backside to block his work until the big reveal. Low and behold, it was a paw print.

Fontecchio hustled over to Paws’ paw with the chainsaw and cut it out while Paws put on a little dance show for the crowd. When Fontecchio had finished, Paws got serious and went to work on his sculpture.

When the 45 minutes were up, time was called and Paws collected all of the ice picking tools from the teams.

Judges went around surveying the carvings and after ten minutes three teams were chosen as winners.

Third place went to team eight for their “Penguin.”

“We’re very happy,” team member and an undeclared freshman Aaron Kubala said. “We didn’t think our sculpture was actually good. We were pleasantly surprised.”

Second place went to team for their carving, “Falcon.”

First place went to team nine for their Hans Solo sculpture, modeled after Episode 6 of Star Wars where Solo was frozen in carbonite.

“This was more of a bonding experience than anything,” Danielle Rosebaum, team member and sophomore business major with a concentration in supply chain, said. “Winning first place was a nice touch.”

ISSI hosts a number of events every year as a way to celebrate the university’s culturally diverse student population.

“The point is to highlight the cultural diversity on campus and bring the international students and domestic students together,” Wooldridge said.