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HOUGHTON -- On Saturday, over a dozen students competed against each other on snowmobiles they built themselves.

The SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge is a yearly event where teams build and modify existing snowmobiles.

Approximately 17 different universities from across the country competed this year, some from as far as Alaska.

The snowmobiles compete for acceleration and handling. They also have to be clean, quiet and beat the current EPA standards of emissions to be eligible.

"It's nerve racking," said University of Idaho student, Alex Fuhrman, whose team snowmobile had the fastest acceleration. "We're always nervous…we work at this all year and it comes down to two runs."

Teams typically invest approximately $10,000 and several months of labor into the competition.