Each year, the THS Olympics is an amazing event. It’s always great to see the classes battle against each other, and to achieve victory is an amazing feeling. The opening events kick-start the Olympics, giving the members of each class the opportunity to watch the most exciting events the THS Olympics has to offer. Without further ado, here is a breakdown of each opening event.

• Class Song: The rules are simple for this event: sing! Students for each grade sing their 4-5 minute class song, and the classes are scored using the following criteria: thematic content, creativity, impression, and participation.

This year’s class songs were based on:

Freshmen – “I’m Shipping up to Boston”

Sophomore – “Hall of Fame”

Juniors – “I’ll Make A Man Out of You”

Seniors – “Party in the U.S.A.”

The juniors ended up getting first in their class song. “We will defeat all of you!”

• Three-legged race: A pair of students tie one of their legs to each other with a rope and race to the finish line. The winners of the three-legged race were the seniors, who barely edged out the juniors. The sophomores placed third while the freshmen lost.

• Knockout: Knockout consists of these rules: two people get the ball and the rest of the competitors are in a line behind  the first two shooters. The first person shoots the ball, and if the shot is made, then the shooter passes to the person behind the other competitor with the ball. If the shot is missed, then the second shooter has a chance to make it and get the first shooter out. This cycle repeats until one person is left. On the boys side, the seniors took an overwhelming victory with all three boys left in the end. The freshmen came second, with the sophomores placing third and the juniors last. On the girls side, the juniors took a narrow victory when junior Leanne Picnic hit the game winner. The sophomores placed second, the seniors placed third, and the freshmen were last. 

• 4-way cage ball:  A team from each grade composed of 10 kids are split into four corners of the volleyball net. The event is basically volleyball with a humongous ball, and every time the ball touches the floor on that team’s side, that team gets a point. The team with the lowest number of points wins. Juniors Ismail Khassa, Jesse Ryno, and Sam Reichert led their class to victory.

• Crazy Obstacle Course: The participants in this obstacle course are the class officers and their advisor(s). Each contestant is required to first pop a balloon by sitting on it, to do a ladder run, to go through a hula hoop, slide under a hurdle, and the most daunting task of all: to stack ten Oreos. Although this task may seem simple, there are over 1200 students watching, and the pressure is high. After stacking the Oreos, you have to dribble a basketball all the way to the rest of your officers. The team that finishes the first and has all students/advisors sitting wins. This year, the sophomores took first, the juniors took second, the seniors third, and the freshmen fourth. The sophomores had some luck on their side, as both the juniors and seniors had a half-broken Oreo each. This prevented them from stacking the Oreos quickly and gave Mr. Angus and the sophomores a slight edge.

• Tug of War: Each class has a boys team and a girls team. The girls team has a maximum weight of 1500 lbs, while the boys team has a max weight of 1750 lbs. The teams play tug of war until one team’s rope crosses their line. Once it does, the opposing team wins. This year, the senior boys won, while the freshman took second. The sophomores placed third while the juniors lost. The seniors dominated the event and defeated the sophomore and freshman classes with ease.

• Stadium Water Bottle Flip: This is a new event this year. Five students from each class simply flip their bottle after the proctor says “FLIP!” The students who land their flip stay in the game, while those who don’t are eliminated. The last class standing wins! The sophomores won this event, while the freshman took second. The seniors and juniors tied for third. Andrew Steinberg was the last man standing for the sophomore class, and landed all of his remaining flips to lead his class to victory.