It all came down to just one event. Wildcat Challenge which is an all day field day where the juniors and seniors compete in different events, took place March 18. The juniors won tug of war, brain bowl and the sack race, while the seniors won the three-legged race, volleyball and the Alpine ski race. Going into the last event, the juniors had a narrow lead on the seniors, but after all the volleyball rounds, the seniors overcame the juniors and won 1,200-1,010.

“My team had very little experience with the sport, and we weren’t prepared to go against a good team,” junior Joanna LaTorre said. “Even though we tried, we just couldn’t keep our scores ahead. But to be fair, the junior class got a decent amount of points by default anyway. It was only a matter of time until the seniors would catch up though. And even though my homeroom let the seniors get ahead, there were plenty of opportunities for the junior class to bring the score back up, so it’s definitely not our fault.”

Each grade had an overall Wildcat Challenge winner, “[Kirk] Murphy’s 42 Don’t Panic” homeroom was the overall junior champion,  and “[Bob] Sarver’s Sexy Sailors” won for the seniors.

“I was the only person in my entire homeroom who actually thought we could win Wildcat Challenge,” junior Juan Rodriguez said. “Since we are a gifted homeroom, we were traditionally athletically challenged so we made do with what we had, and it ended up being enough to kick everyone’s butt.”

In the individual categories, “[Jill] Whitacre’s Waldos” won the alpine ski race and the three-legged race, while “Schle’s Anatomy” and “[Amy] Dimond’s Dashers” won the tug of war.

“My favorite event was probably the Alpine ski event because it was a really awesome feeling to know that my homeroom was bonding and working together to cross the finish line,” LaTorre said. “My homeroom classmates figuratively and literally had to support each other and everyone had to keep moving forward if we got stuck. We all knew that if we wanted to win we needed to work together and in sync, and eventually we did. Also, everyone played a part in the success so it wasn’t like there was one person to blame if we lost the race, which we didn’t.”

One event, however, that LaTorre did not enjoy was the three-legged race.

“My least favorite event was the three-legged race only because the rope left bruises and rope marks on my ankle,” she said. “At first it was really fun and my partner and I sped through it, and we got first in the junior class, but after a bit the pain settled in and it was brutal. If I could change anything, I would avoid using ropes for that race and just have people tie shoe laces together or something more simple to avoid injury.”

Rodriguez and LaTorre both agreed that Wildcat Challenge was a good way to bond with classmates who they normally do not get to see very often.

“My favorite part was certainly getting to know some of the kids in my homeroom a little more because I don’t usually talk to them much,” Rodriguez said. “However, another favorite part of mine was Mamoon [Syed’s] spiral serve in the volleyball game. It failed miserably.”

By Alexa Carlos