Juliana Jacobs, Sports Writer & Jordan Jacobs, Sports Editor
At flex on Thursday, November 23rd, the main gym was packed full of eager fans waiting to see the basketball skills and dunk contest.
The skills contest was held first and had four participants who were all members of the senior basketball teams. In this contest, participants had to dribble through cones, pass their basketball through an elevated tire, make a layup, and score a three-pointer on the other side of the court. Newcomer Jarrett Jacobs was up first against teammate Alister Coyle. Jacobs was ahead of Coyle the entire time but it was his three-pointer first try that sealed Jacobs the round win. Next up was Tavia Rowell and Sophia Wisotzki, the only girls competing in the contest. It was a close race between Rowell and Wisotzki but Rowell got the win over Wisotzki when she passed her basketball through the tire first and knocked down her three-pointer first try. So it was Tavia Rowell and Jarrett Jacobs in the finals. They were neck and neck through the cones and both struggled at the tire. It was Jacobs who got his basketball through the tire first but he forgot to make a layup and had to go back! Rowell took this slip up to her advantage and hit her three-pointer first try to seal her victory!
The highly anticipated dunk contest was up next and had three participants: Luke Adams, Azino Urefe, and last year’s winner James Woods. The contestants brought some of their best dunks to the competition and it took four rounds to finally be able to choose a winner. After missing his dunks, Adams was out of the competition, which left Urefe and Woods as the final two competitors. Urefe amazed the crowd with his 360 and one-handed dunks. However, it was Woods who really blew the audience away when he jumped over teammate Ritesh Nandakumar- who was holding a basketball over his head- and dunked backwards to bring home the win!
So for this year, our winners are Tavia Rowell for the skills competition and James Woods for the dunk contest. Now the question is, as Woods graduates this year, who will reign as next year’s dunk champion?
