Thanks to pure athleticism and physical defense, Blar has reigned supreme among the co-ed ranks in the Field House.

The squad, which stands atop the Co-Rec Top 5 Rankings, is no stranger to intramural sports.

Most of the team’s members played together during the intramural flag-football season under the same abnormal name — one many are perplexed by.

“I don’t think it stands for anything,” Reed McManigal said. “It’s possibly one of the worst team names ever.”

The Blar players may not know what the four-letter title stands for, but when it comes down to intramural hoops, it means pure domination.

Standing 4-0 in division play, Blar has obliterated teams en route to a No. 1 ranking while receiving six out of 11 first-place votes in the intramural poll.

The group’s success stems from a mixture of pressure, up-tempo offense, and pure athleticism from the women on the team. All four females played a Division-I sport.

Amy Bagge ran track at Northern Iowa, and Betsy Cordt, Abby Emmert, and captain Monica Mims are former Hawkeye athletes, participating in volleyball, basketball, and track, respectively, at Iowa.

“The ladies’ athleticism really puts a lot of pressure on the other team’s girls, and lets the press be successful because of their ability to recover so quickly,” said Kellen Bubach.

Bubach also boasts some collegiate experience as a former five-year basketball player at Jamestown College, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Conference school located in Jamestown, N.D.

Most of the Co-Rec teams cannot find a hole in Blar’s armor when on the hardwood. The team executes a full-court press and pushes the tempo to generate easy points in transition.

Plus, with four previous Division-1 athletes, an NAIA college basketball player, and a player capable of throwing down dunks, the top-ranked bunch of intramural ballers is also fun to watch.

Team members said they hope their success continues through the playoffs, where they look to be the odds-on favorite. However, there are a few other squads holding undefeated records waiting to knock Blar off its golden intramural sports pedestal.

Dime Pieces and Team Miralax are the other two teams receiving first-place votes, and they have been sitting under Blar for most of the intramural basketball season.

“I think there are some other good teams out there for sure,” Bubach said. “But if we play well, I think we are going to be really tough to beat, and we don’t intend on losing any games.”

But those teams are going to have to put together two great halves offensively to swat away Blar’s chances of winning the Co-Rec championship. Mims said that may be highly unlikely, though.

“Even if a team is hanging around the first half, it is a pretty safe bet that if we keep pushing it in the second half, they won’t have enough left to keep up,” she said.