By Isiah REYES

hey came from far and wide, drawn to the cube – the Rubik’s Cube.

St. Francis High School held the Rubik’s Cube Winter Open 2015 Competition hosting more than 100 competitors on Sunday, Feb. 1. Though this was the first time St. Francis held the competition it was undoubtedly an inspiring event – one competitor set a new world’s record.

The competition included rounds of 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 3×3 one-handed, Pyraminx, Skewb and Square-1 rounds. Nathan Soria set a Skewb world record of 1.71 seconds. The previous record was held by Jonathan Klosko who set the record of 1.81 seconds during the Santa Claus Cube Race 2014 in Poland.

The event was organized by St. Francis student Christian Martin, who said he didn’t think there would be as many people registering for the competition because it was on the same day as the Super Bowl. He said he would have been happy with just 70 or 80 people showing up.

“I am impressed as to how things went, and even more impressed that my crew did all that work,” said Martin. “The world record was a nice bonus as well. Overall, I hope I can do this again in the fall.”

SpeedCubeShop sponsored the event and was on hand to sell merchandise such as shirts, bags and, of course, a multitude of Rubik’s Cubes in a variety of styles.

For each round of competition, every participant was given five attempts to solve their respective puzzle. The winner was the one who had the best average time among their five attempts.

The winner for the 2×2 cube was Everett Kelly, whose average time for solving the cube was 2.76 seconds during his five attempts. Second place was Isaac Langer and third was Shane Grogan. The 2×2 cube, or Pocket Cube, is the equivalent of a Rubik’s Cube but consists of only eight pieces made up of all corners.

For the 3×3 (regular style Rubik’s Cube), the winner was James Hamory with an average of 9.66 seconds for his five attempts at solving the cube during the final round (top 16). Second place was Nathan Soria and third was Shane Grogan. The 4×4 winner was Nathan Soria with an average best of 38.52 seconds. Shane Grogan was second place and third was Samuel Chiu.

The Pyraminx winner was Jungwoo Kim with an average best of 5.94 seconds. A Pyraminx is a Rubik’s Cube style puzzle in the shape of a pyramid. Second place was Everett Kelly and third place was Isaac Langer.

The winner of the Skewb round was Nathan Soria who won with an average time of 4.51 seconds. It was during his third attempt that he clocked in his world record of 1.71 seconds. A Skewb is shaped like a normal Rubik’s Cube but its axis of rotation passes through the corners of the cube unlike a regular 3×3. Second place of the Skewb round was Isaac Langer and third place was Jungwoo Kim.

The winner of the Square-1 round was Michael Young with an average best time of 14.86 seconds. Second place was Thomas Valles and third place was Everett Kelly. The winner for the one-handed Rubik’s Cube round was Samuel Chiu with an average best time of 15.24 seconds. Michael Young was second place and third was Nathan Soria.

According to the official Rubik’s website, the Rubik’s Cube was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik; he wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. It took him one month before he was able to solve the Cube for himself.

Over 350 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold worldwide – making it the bestselling toy of all time.

All the profits from the St. Francis event will be given to the St. Francis Rubik’s Cube Club for sweatshirts. Martin said it was a lot of work to put the event together but he’d like to do it again next year.

  Isiah REYES