The phrase more fun than a barrel of monkeys was revised on Tuesday night as 36 teams grappled with a greased up pig, and some were able to pack the porcine in a barrel in only a matter of seconds at the Park County Fair’s annual pig wrestling event.

Teams were divided into multiple age groups and as the wrestlers grew in size, so did the pigs. While the peewee teams were pitted against pint-sized porkers, the men's division duked it out against 240-pounders.

The goal behind pig wrestling is simple, teams of four get 1 minute to put a pig in a barrel. But, the teams have to slosh their way through a pool of bentonite slurry and the pig is slick in more ways than one as pigs have been estimated to have the intelligence of a 3-year-old human.

Three teams competed in the peewee division and the Pickled Pigs (Kaedenze Carter, Coy Erickson, Landon McDonald and Landon Petersen) came out on top with a time of 13.91 seconds. Not far behind were the Pig Pounders (Kaden Wolff, Brady Harvey, Hoyt Wells and Talon Nuss) with 15.64. The Pig Penners (Ethan Ely, Channing Wenzel, Braxton Batt and Renzy Matthews) were unable to get the pig in the barrel in time but they were happier than a pig in slop at the end, regardless of the outcome.

The junior division saw 10 teams, that’s 40 kids, splashing around in the pool of bentonite slurry trying to slam the swine into the barrel in the middle. At the head of the pack was the Tail Twisters team (Tyler Wood, Eli Estes, Wyatt Blackmore and Trey Stenerson) with a time of 27.17 seconds and not too far behind were the Piggy Chicks (Lilly Morrison, Gracie Trotter, Regan Sapp and Allison Morrison) with 28.68 seconds.

Meanwhile the Piggleberry Punch bunch (Abby Eaton, Virginia Lohr, Cassidy Reimer and Kaylee Dechau) took the pig to market in 40.73 seconds and the Pop Tart Pig Wrestlers (Gracie Wolff, Waycee Harvey, Brynn Hillman and Brooke Bessler) were close behind by 43.23 seconds. The Parkside Pork Pals (Tyler Wenzel, Jacob Eaton, Zane Graft and Pat Haney) just narrowly made it in before the 1-minute buzzer, clocking in at 56.29 seconds.

The intermediate division saw the quickest time of the night with a stunning 11.35-second time from the Porksters (Noah Goodwin, Parker Goodwin, Trace Goodwin and Matthew Stroble).

“Parker and I dove on him and they (Trace and Matthew) helped us out,” Noah Goodwin said while explaining how the team was able to pull off such a speedy time.

The Big Bad Wolves (Caden Gines, Mikey Timmons, Tyler Timmons and Wyatt Herd) came in second with a 17.15 and the Swine Warriors’ pig was cooked by 25.52 seconds.

“It wasn’t too hard, we were going around so we could get both sides,” Mikey Timmons said.”

All four of the Big Bad Wolves agreed it was a muddy experience they would do again next year.

Not too far behind was Ham Slam (Triniti Bruski, Sabrina Alvarez, Olivia Griffin and Alexis Hackworth) with a 35.25, followed by the Swine Sisters (Raelynn Ramsey, Jozi Simpson, Abby Landwehr and Tegan Lovelady) with a 44.06.

Up until the men’s division, all the pigs were small and cute, but the Concrete Cowboys’ (Mike Mundy, Glade Sunderland, Justin Cross and Ernest Miller) jaws dropped when the Godzilla of pigs splashed his way into the pen and the team was unable to make the catch in time.

The West Pork Hospital Hambulance team (James Grotefend, Wyatt Gardner, Tony Settineri and Glen Clinton) came in first with a 36.05 followed by Swine Flu (Joey Jewell, Spur Hackney, Jacob Price and Garrett Michael) with 50.47.

Grotefend credited his team’s victory to skill, luck and strategy as he estimated their pig weighed at least 240 pounds.

When asked if he’d do it again, Grotefend said “oh heck yeah — and all the guys couldn’t believe we got it in.”

In the women’s division, it was emergency responders vs. emergency responders as the West Park Emergency Department team (Amanda Buffkin, Whitney Franklin, Jozie Coy and Renae Cornell) and the PVHC Dolls (Cassie Cox, Shantel Stahl, Ashley Young and Erin Higgins) duked it out for the top position.

The ladies on the West Park Hospital Emergency Department team rushed to the scene and had its porky patient in the barrel in 15.28 seconds.

Bufkin credited her team’s success with “pure brute strength.”

Meanwhile, the PVHC squad packaged the pork in only 31.38 seconds.

Following their round, Cox jokingly announced “we’re the best hospital” and Higgins declared their pig was twice as big as West Park Hospital’s.

In third was the Poor Boy Feeds Ham Slammers (Adrienne Harvey, Sara Skalsky, Becky Wood and Emmanuelle McCarty) with a time of 51.93 seconds.