Thousands of students stood along Riverside Avenue to cheer on more than 200 student who were racing makeshift bed carts down the street.
"We had a really great turnout as far as crowd participation, definitely more than I saw last year," said Chanel Richards, Homecoming Steering Committee general chairwoman.
The Bed Race event is a staple of Homecoming Week, the only on-campus activity for Friday.
Richards said changing the start time to 12:30 p.m. resulted in a larger crowd because students were able to attend even if they had class at noon or 1 p.m.
This year 46 teams competed in one of Ball State's most popular Homecoming traditions. Awards were given to the overall winner, six division winners and for best costume.
This year's Bed Race overall winner was Alpha Tau Omega fraternity Team 2.
Bryan Meadows, sophomore economics major and Alpha Tau Omega member, said this was the first year his team had competed. The team was "naked," wearing only black boxer shorts adorned with cardboard signs that read "censored" across the front.
The team won with a time of 12.97 seconds, Richards said.
Lily Barker, Bed Race chairwoman, said all the teams were really competitive.
"Everyone got really into it and had really awesome costumes," she said.
This year's best costume went to the women of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association, who dressed up as the fruit from the "Fruit of the Loom" commercials. Their costumes consisted of a bunch of green grapes, a bunch of purple grapes, an apple and a leaf.
Senior speech pathology major Molly Webb dressed up as the purple grape. She said all the costumes took a couple of hours to make. Webb wore purple pants and a purple shirt with purple balloons clipped on all over it.
Students were warned before the race of the dangers of running off course. Even so, two Ball State students, Nikki Zubak and Brent Kunigonis, were taken in an ambulance to Ball Memorial Hospital after falling off the bed during a race.
University Police Chief Gene Burton said Zubak had an apparent broken arm. Kunigonis struck a metal pole after falling off the bed, causing a section of the protective fencing that lined Riverside Avenue to fall down. Gene said Kunigonis began to vomit and complain of pain in his left hand and left arm before being taken to the hospital.
Despite the incidents, the crowd and contestants still enjoyed the event.
"Being a junior I've never participated in this before, and it was one of the most fun events I've been apart of since being at Ball State," said Charlotte Dunlap, junior telecommunications major and competitor on the Delta Zeta team.
Bed Race Division Winners:
Fraternity: Alpha Tau Omega Team 2
Sorority: Delta Zeta
Residence Hall Female: Schmidt/Wilson
Residence Hall Male: Kinghorn
Independent Male: University Singers
Independent Female: Trendz of Essence
Best Costume: National Student Speech Language Hearing Association
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