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Scoopers at Ben & Jerry's at the Palladium know how to fling some ice cream.

They, along with fellow scoopers from the Ben & Jerry's at Friendly Center, showed their stuff Tuesday.

Both stores, owned by Paul Harrison of Winston-Salem, competed to see who would advance to represent the stores at a championship in Charlotte next week .

This will be the group's first time in the championship.

Scoopers raced against the clock to assemble the perfect Brownie Special, aka brownie sundae and fruit smoothies. Their scooping accuracy was judged for weight and appearance. They had to be quick, neat and efficient.

Points were deducted if a step was forgotten or the station wasn't clean. It was a tough - and close - competition.

"I'm getting better at it," said Skyra Watson , 15, of her scooping abilities. She's worked at the High Point store for only two months but was confident her team had a chance to go to Charlotte.

"Without my penalty, we would have been OK," said Tara Jeffries , 22. She didn't put any ice into the fruit smoothie because she heard the scooper before her say the fruit was still frozen. But, it wasn't. Manager Tammy Hawk had put out some fresh strawberries right before she started her smoothie.

But, no fears. Jeffries' team was pumped. They cheered each other on from the sidelines. They wanted to go to Charlotte.

Jonathon Harrison , 18, was convinced his team had a chance. "We started slow, but our points are increasing," he said. He's the son of owner Paul Harrison. Waiting for his team to weigh ice cream cases for speed, Jonathon Harrison said, "We're going to blow everybody out of the water. We came to compete."

Weighing the ice cream cases is done at the end of each day to tell how much was sold.

"We have experience, knowledge," Jonathan Harrison explained about his Greensboro store team. The Friendly store opened October 2008. The High Point store opened April 2007.

But the confident scooper acknowledged the High Point teams would be at an advantage because it's their home store.

"I'm under-scooping instead of over-scooping, which is still bad," said High Point scooper Ivery Taylor, 18, who said she was a little nervous.

Greensboro scooper Will Pharr , 16, said he was nervous too. He's only scooped ice cream at the Greensboro store since spring.

Pharr and team member Isaac Gains, 18, think they have the ice cream case weighing in the bag. "We have a little system we're going to use," Gains said. What's the system? "That's privileged information."

Gains later admitted speed was his team's only arsenal.

"We're struggling," said Jenny Denarest of her team. "I don't think we're going to do good. We did do good on the dip thingies, so we still have a chance." She said her team also won best appearance for the sundae.

After all was said and done, Pharr and Gains will travel with assistant manager and team member Crystal Bryant to Charlotte to compete for the Golden Scoop award, which the winning team will keep until next year's championship.

"It's pretty exciting," said Paul Harrison. "They won by one point. It came down to the cake decorating."

The team is excited for a chance to represent in Charlotte. "Although we're rookies, we hope to put up a good fight," Paul Harrision said.

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241; or elizabeth.seagraves@news-record.com