Meridian resident Nick Quigley, 10, bested a rock-strewn river bottom and water-balloon packing grandmothers to take first place Saturday in the homemade raft division during the Chunky River Raft Race & Festival.

    “It was challenging,” Nick said. “There were a lot of rocks on the bottom of the river and they hurt went you went over them, so you would have to get out and push your raft.”

    Paddling his raft decorated to resemble a catfish for Team River Cats, Nick fired off a few shots with his water gun at members of Team Grandmas Gone Wild as he passed them up. That was a mistake.

    “They had water balloons,” Nick said laughing. “And they were throwing them at me.”    

    Depending on whom you spoke with, the raft race, which included separate classes for canoes and kayaks, began either 3.1 miles or 4.2 miles upstream from Chunky Shoals Fish Camp, which marked the finish point for the contestants.

    It took Nick a little over two hours to cross the finish line, barely beating out the four-man team of Jeremy Herring, Josh Turner, A.J. Beard and Trey East, who took top honors the two prior consecutive years in most creative raft and first over the finish line.

    This year, the men mounted a plywood base on styrofoam and powered the craft with bicycle pedals and a chain that turned a paddlewheel constructed from an old wire spool. To top it off, they painted the raft with multi-colored florescent paint.

    Three of the men are from Vicksburg, while the fourth is from Baton Rouge.

    “It floated fine with four of us on it,” Beard said. “My buddies are all engineers and they came up with the design.”

    Three of the men’s wives — Tracie Herring, Alicia Turner and Carol Ann Beard — were waiting at the finish line, seated in lounge chairs partially submerged in the river.

    Two of the women are pregnant and they decided this year would not be their year to compete in the raft race. Next year will be different, they said.

    “Next year it’s on,” Tracie Herring said. “It’s going to be the girls against the guys.”

    The event also included arts and crafts, food and live music. The raft race and festival is sponsored by Chunky Shoals Fish Camp co-owners Rick and Jim Lewis, who are brothers.

    “The turnout this year has been phenomenal,” Rick Lewis said.

    The event included fundraisers to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association and the Wounded Warrior Project.

    “The Alzheimer’s is a family thing we are doing in honor of our mother who had Alzheimer’s,” Rick Lewis said. “At the walk in Meridian on Sept. 26 we want our team to be number one in donating.”

    Last year, some $1,600 was raised during the event to benefit the East Mississippi Animal Shelter.

    Taylor White was among those at the festival. White, a summer intern with the East Mississippi Foothills Land Trust, manned one of the booths to educate attendees on the importance of keeping the river clean.

    “We actually have a clean-up in two weeks,” White said. “We will float the Chunky River just like today, but we will pick up trash on the side of the Chunky River.”

    At least one attendee was already making plans for next year.

    “I am coming back,” Nick Quigley said. “I really enjoyed it.”