The Requisite Round of Congratulations

A number of events have passed which I feel the need to recap and for which I must give my congratulations (mainly to Ted). Firstly, there is our very own speech and debate team, which is preparing to recapture the district championship after losing it last year to Madison. We've beaten them routinely throughout the year, but only by the slightest margins. Hopefully we can capitalize on our past success when it comes to head to head competition, and bring the trophy back where it belongs.

My congratulations extends to Ian Rocker, after he led the Mock Trial Team to qualify for the state competition. The usual suspects Lincoln, Grant, and Riverdale will be the main competition, from what I hear.

Also, both Wilson A and Wilson B won second place in their respective divisions in the state chess competition. Ted, I know that South Eugene wasn't there, so you didn't have to compete against their prodigious grandmaster Oleg, but what about that other person on the winning team...?

And finally that brings me to the veritable Science Bowl competition. This was the first year that we competed in the regional tournament, and Wilson B took second in the entire tournament to earn a spot at the national competition in Washington DC. But that was awhile ago. Last weekend, the district-organized Science Bowl competition, which is unaffiliated with the national one, occurred. The team that was Wilson B, became the A team, and the former A team (of which I was a member) pretty much disbanded because everyone except Ted had conflicts that rendered them unable to compete last weekend. The new B team became a ragtag group cobbled together at the last moment, and comprised of Ted, Tommy, Abraham, and someone named Tom Hall. By a complex set of unfortunate circumstances, the national qualifying A team finished a disappointing third, and the spur-of-the-moment B team finished just behind them in fourth. The B team actually beat Benson A, the team that went on to win the tournament, and they lost only in overtime to Grant A, the second-place team. I talked to Zaraza about the whole thing, and apparently everyone was pretty disappointed when Benson won, due to their incredible arrogance. Additionally, he claimed that the only reason that Wilson B did so well was because they got nearly every single physics question correct--it supports my theory that physics, chess, and calculus are the only thing that students from our school are good at (for competition's sake, they're also thankfully things at which most people are absolutely terrible). The only consolation is that Benson A is comprised entirely of seniors. Grant A also has a few seniors. Neither Wilson A, nor Wilson B, nor Wilson C have any seniors. Next year, hopefully we'll be a little more organized and actually practice. Then we'll be able to make two uber-teams that will dish out some domination.

Next stop: state economics competition. We had better win again this year... I want my $100 savings bond and trip to Scottsdale, AZ. Plus I have a feeling that Marchese will be really disappointed if we don't extend his two-year winning streak.

Update: I just realized something. If I'm congratulating Wilson B for getting fourth in a meaningless district Science Bowl, then despite the baseless prejudices I may have, I must congratulate the cheerleading team on winning 5th at nationals.

Update to the Update: Swimming won 1st a the district tournament... I'm done for the evening.