This is the best summary I could come up with:
(AP) — It took Naval Academy plebes two hours, 19 minutes and 11 seconds Wednesday to accomplish the ultimate in upward mobility: scaling a greased obelisk and swapping out a cup with a cap, this year with an unusual hitch.
The annual grueling, slippery ritual marking the completion of the plebe year ended with 20-year-old Californian Ben Leisegang standing victorious on the shoulders of scores of classmates and placing an upperclassman’s hat atop the Herndon Monument.
The Class of 2027 worked together to scale the 21-foot (6-meter) obelisk covered in vegetable shortening to replace a plebe “Dixie cup,” a white canvas sailor’s hat with an upturned rim, with the upperclassman’s more formal hat.
Under rainy skies in Annapolis, Maryland, plebes linked arms around the monument’s base to build a pyramid, clearing grease from the monument’s surface, enduring a constant soaking spray from hoses.
Around the two-hour mark, one plebe finally got close enough to place the upperclassman’s hat near the obelisk’s pinnacle.
Minutes later, the same plebe whipped the top of the obelisk, still lathered white with shortening, with a waterlogged shirt and knocked down the upperclassman’s hat.
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