Last Friday marked Ripon High’s Third Annual Amazing Race. Teams of four ran around Ripon to find a series of clues. In total, there were 18 teams. After almost two and a half hours, one team came out on top. 

The winning team’s name was ‘Wasted Potential’, ironic because of their win. Its members included Abigail Hendley, Madison Hendley, Elias Ramirez, and Nathan Selna. To win, teams had to go through many steps to get to their final destination– building E2 back at school– from the North Gym starting point. The first challenge was to run up the catwalk and find a combination lock that opened to the code each team was given. As no two lock combinations were the same, each team had to find the one that fit their combination. 

The next step was to run to the cemetery on the other side of the freeway. Each team had a different gravestone to find. 

“The graveyard took the longest out of everything…” said Elias Ramirez, Freshman.

From there, the teams headed back to the North Gym, where each team had to get four paper airplanes from one set of bleachers to the other. After that, each team was given a specific item to look for at the Clarence Smit Museum on Main Street. 

Next, the teams had to find one out of dozens of bricks lining Main Street. As is common knowledge, each brick has the name of a family or person to whom it is dedicated. This step is where many of the teams struggled. The instructions stated that the brick had to be pictured with each member’s foot framing the  brick. The instructions meant that one foot should be on the edge of each side of the brick. More than one team had to go back to take a second picture, having not properly framed the brick the first time. 

After that, the teams played cornhole outside the E buildings. The goal was to get 20 bean bags in the hole. Next, there was a hotdog eating race in Ms. Pendleton’s room. Then, a teacher trivia test on Quizizz. To pass the trivia, teams had to get 90% or higher. It was a real challenge!

The last parts of the Amazing Race were possibly the easiest. The teams did a crossword. At the end of the puzzle, there were 17 letters uncircled. Those letters spelled out “Seven Two Nine W. Main”, the address of Harvest High School. There, a QR code was hidden on a sign. The code told participants to run back to building E2.

The final challenge was to solve a math problem. 

“The hardest step was probably the last one where we had to do this really big math problem,” said Abigail Hendley, Freshman. 

Although the math problem was not difficult, the teams were tired. It took effort to make that final push to victory. 

As a final and important note, all the participants owe a great debt of gratitude to all the faculty and staff who made the Amazing Race possible. They made time in already busy lives to provide Ripon High students a great challenge and a ton of fun.