The Spring Hill High team placed first in the team round of the Southwest Arkansas Educational Cooperative's Rubik's Cube Invitational.

This year’s Rubik’s Cube Invitational, which took place yesterday starting at noon in a large classroom upstairs at the Southwest Arkansas Educational Cooperative on the UAHT campus, drew more student participants and more schools than last year. An especially popular competition category was junior high soloists who numbered 70.

The schools represented included Spring Hill, Blevins, Genoa, Bearden, Taylor, Emerson, Star City, Junction City, Cossatot River High in Cove City, Caddo Hills, Dierks and (Camden Fairview).

In team competition, teams of up to eight cube-solvers gathered around tables were timed on how long it took for them to solve 25 cubes that had been scrambled in 25 moves to render them as difficult to solve as possible. When the judge said go, a team member removed a blanket covering the scrambled cubes and teams went to work, fingers going in a blur.  Junior high teams competed, then senior highs.

Next was the solo competition. The junior high category of soloists was especially numerous. You sat down at a table with a cube and a timer. You got 15 seconds to inspect your cube without making any moves. Then the judge counted down and you could go at it.

Team coaches told me that the best strategy is time spent working to solve your cube. Bethany Brantley Gifted and Talented and Advanced Placement educator at Cossatot Rivers School District said the task of preparation for competitors is “kind of on all of them. I just kind of facilitate, and they take it all on themselves, during lunch breaks and [if they have] any extra time using it to practice.”

As impressive as it is to see students solving these puzzles that have stumped this writer since the early 80s, Spring Hill’s Tristan Fugitt said he believes solving cubes fast does not take extraordinary talent. “It takes a bit of time to learn it. But I feel like anyone could do it.”

Today’s winners are listed below:

Teams:  Junior High First Place: Hamburg School District

            Junior High Second Place: Junction City

            Senior High First Place: Spring Hill High

            Senior High Second Place: Cossatot River School

Soloists: Junior High First Place: Jenkins Dobbins, ARLA

            Junior High Second Place: Tristan Fugitt, Spring Hill

            Senior High First Place: Riley Gunn, Cossatot River High

            Senior High Second Place: Gilbert Perry, Caddo Hills

• The Junior High Second Place team from Junction City.

• The Junior High First Place team from Hamburg School District.

• The Senior High Second Place team from Cossatot River School.

• The Senior High First Place team from Spring Hill High.

• The Junior High Second Place soloist Tristan Fugitt of Spring Hill.

• The Junior High First Place soloist Jenkins Dobbins of ARLA.

• The Senior High Second Place soloist Gilbert Perry of Caddo Hills.

• The Senior High First Place soloist Riley Gunn of Cossatot River High.