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Five-Peat! Swim and Dive takes leagueHaving captured its

fifth consecutive Mission League title, the Varsity Swimming and Diving team is in its mid-sea-son, now looking ahead to CIF competition.

Kicking off the season at a meet against Crescenta Valley on March 8, the AquaCubs came off the blocks strong and swam to a promising 1-0 start.

Not long after, on March 28, came the Cubs’ tough-est meet of the year—a tri-meet at Capistrano Valley High School against Corona Del Mar and Capistrano Valley. Facing two of the top teams in California, the Cubs knew they were in for a tough meet and a close finish. Battling to the end, the Cubs tied Capistrano Valley and lost a close meet to Corona Del Mar, but the team came out of the meet more experienced and eager to improve for the remainder of the season.

The AquaCubs began league play on March 15 against Crespi. Having

experienced success the past several years in Mission League, the team entered league play confident and hungry for another title.

“Mission League was very competitive this year,” junior Peter Kropp said, “and the two teams that challenged us the most were Harvard-Westlake and Crespi.”

Despite encountering tough opponents in Crespi and Harvard-Westlake, the Cubs responded well at both meets. The AquaCubs continued their dominance throughout league play, concluding Tuesday, April 17, with a win at home over Chaminade and Alemany.

The team completed its fifth consecutive year with-out losing a league meet, capturing its fifth consecu-tive Mission League title.

Swimmers Jay Evans and Peter Kropp, both juniors, said that the team has high hopes for the remainder of the season. “We’ve put in a lot of work this year,” said Evans, “so we’ll pray that it pays off.”

CIF qualifier Kropp

said, “We look for many records to be broken at CIF.”

Losing a strong group of talented swimmers from last season, the Cubs have relied increasingly this year on the team’s underclassmen to step up and perform well. In par-ticular, sophomores Corey John and Oliver Maarse have been valuable assets, delivering great per-formances at each meet.

The Cubs are led by senior captains Fred Abramyan, Kurtis Rossie, Dominic Moreth, Patrick Brown and Aidan Doyle. Heavily recruited, Abramyan said he is cur-rently deciding among the University of North Carolina, the University of Southern California, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Virginia and the Univserity of Texas.

As of the final Mission League meet, the Cubs who have already quali-fied for CIF by meeting the automatic time standard

[See Page 2, Swim and Dive...]

By Andrew Friedman

Junior Connor Johnson skies out of the water. PHOTO BY ALEX ALVARADO

JCL Cubs win elections; Loyola to host SCRAMBy Tristan Vanech

Fifty-one students, two teachers and two chaperones attended the California Junior Classical League Convention at Menlo School in Atherton, California, on the weekend of Friday, Mar. 30.

Two Cubs won elected positions: soph-omore Brandon Kim was named parlia-mentarian; and junior Frederick Muth, southern representative. Muth’s success means that next year, Loyola will host SCRAM (Southern California Regional Amici Madness), for the third time in Loyola history.

Dimidium facti qui coepit habet, or “He who has begun has half the deed done,” was the theme for this year’s JCL Convention. This saying certainly was true for dedicated Latin scholars who practiced all year in preparation.

Mrs. Teresa Kawamata, Latin teacher and moderator of the JCL chapter, said, “It’s exciting to know that so many kids wanted to go because it means people had fun last year.”

Muth said, “Over the last three years I've become very involved in the JCL, and holding a state position is a great way to take your dedication to a new level. Loyola was about due for another SCRAM, and I felt confident I could manage it, so I ran.”

The JCL members are dividing them-selves into committees for the various events they plan to run, all under the direction of Muth. He said, “I've promised to deliver a great convention with Loyola's great facilities, dedicated classmates and a supportive community.”

Kim said the most important thing about JCL is its welcoming environment. “One thing I like about JCL is that it

allows for recognition of all talents. There are athletics, academics, arts and more. It really allows students to develop and be recognized for their talents and for other students to be open to try and learn differ-ent things.”

Muth’s love for the classics motivates him to participate actively in the JCL com-munity. “My favorite part of the JCL is def-initely the opportunity to congregate with people from across the city, the state and the nation who have as driving a shared enthusiasm for the classics as I do and show it time and time again by traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to par-ticipate and be a part of the community,” he said. “Illud, illud est JCL.” Translation: “That, that is JCL.”

Every year, the state convention brings together classical enthusiasts from across the state to face off in various contests and events, the most competitive of which is a buzz-in question game called certamen, the Latin word for “struggle.”

On March 3, Loyola’s JCL participated in CARCER, the regional qualifiers for certamen. The freshman team placed third; sophomores, second; juniors, first; and seniors, eighth. These results determined the seeding at state convention.

“I think we did pretty much as we expected and even better, especially because we don’t get as good of a show-ing for CARCER as we do for state,” said senior Tom Placido. “I’m definitely pleased with the results from all four teams.”

At state, Muth along with junior Joey Baretto won the final round and placed first among the Latin III teams. Loyola certamen teams in Latin levels I-IV fin-ished respectively second, second, first, and eighth. [See Page 2, Cubs lead...]

By David Pollack

The Loyola Robotics Team recent-ly returned from the Central Valley Regional FIRST robotics competition in Madera, California, the team’s second and final competition of the year, which was held April 5-7.

The game the robot participated in was a modified form of basketball, in which the robots shot balls through hoops of varying heights, the tallest one being worth the most points and the shortest being worth the least. In addi-tion, bridges hung in the middle of the court, which the robots could balance on for points. The teams were grouped into alliances, which had to work together to score points.

The team’s first competition of the season was the Los Angeles Regional event, held in Long Beach, on March 15-17. At the beginning of this competi-tion, the team ran into some difficulties.

Rules of the competition require the robot to weigh less than 120 pounds, which the officials check before the games begin. Loyola’s entry was found to be almost 40 pounds overweight, much to the surprise of the team. Having to lose a great deal of weight in a few hours, the team had to scrap a few non-essential parts of the robot.

“We decided the amputation weight loss method was the most pertinent,” said senior Elliot Clarke, the team cap-tain. “We had an entire elaborate turret which could auto-track the targets while we drove around, as well as the loading mechanism which is useless without it.”

The team, within a matter of hours, designed and constructed something akin to a paddle for a new shooting mechanism. With the new mechanism, the robot was able to reach only the shortest basket, and it actually scored points.

“Thankfully, after that, they had a great working robot. They had a lot of competitions where not only did they win, they were actually the only team from their alliance to score,” said Coach Karalyn Ramon. “Overall, we did better than we have ever done at the regionals, so overall we were very pleased.”

In addition to the weight issue, the team discovered that the robot’s bridge mechanism did not have enough force to push the bridge down far enough to drive over it. However, senior Chance Munger, captain of the mechanical team, discovered that with the right frequency, the mechanism was able to acquire reso-nance with the bridge, eventually push-ing the bridge down enough to drive over.

The recent competition at Madera went much smoother, according to Clarke. The team finished the tourna-ment with a 4-6 record, although due to the nature of the ranking system, they finished behind a team with a 0-10 record.

The team recently created an autono-mous mode for the robot, according to Munger. “We had one of the most reli-able autonomous modes at the Central Valley competition,” said Munger. “Honestly, we built the autonomous code in about ten minutes. We just kept it simple.”

Robotics team competes in its second tournament