The gym floor was flooded with students as they all gripped and ripped at the large, twisted rope attempting to pull it to their side. Shoes went flying and students fell the the ground all in an attempt to have bragging rights as the strongest class.

The annual Battle of the Classes (BOTC) competition was held on April 21 in the downstairs gym. All the classes came decked out in their respective colors and the competition was a fierce as ever. The senior class earned the coveted title of champion with a slim 200 pt margin over the juniors. Sophomores earned the third place title and freshman followed close behind in fourth.

“Winning was awesome because it was our last ever high school pep rally,” senior Madie Walsh said. “Everyone in the crowd was super hyped during the events and I think that helped us to win.”

The class teams were decided prior to the competition as students were given the opportunity to sign-up during lunches for each of the activities. Each team had 12 participants who competed in events such as tug of war, class sing along, trivia, a septantine relay race and a fast paced penny pick up game called rainbow fiasco. Principal Tim Thomas was a guest judge in the sing along and and tug of war portion of the competition.

First place in each event earned 400 points followed by second place with 300, third with 200 and fourth with 100.

“Battle of the classes is my favorite pep rally every year,” junior BOTC participant Jack McCrossin said. “It was upsetting that [the juniors] didn’t win but I know we can win next year”

This was the second year that Battle of the Classes was held instead of a spring pep rally, but due to testing season approaching teachers request as many pride times as possible with students to prepare.

“We decided to combine the spring pep rally with battle of the classes, instead of just picking one or the other,” BOTC committee leader Lennon Wuhrer said. “In an effort to do this we announced all of the spring sport seniors as well as the leadership seniors at the competition.”

The flipped schedule on Friday helped to accommodate the competition, however due to spatial issue in the main gym not every W4 class was able to attend.

“Every year we have some form of fundraising in an effort to get students excited and hyped for BOTC but also so that we can decode which W4’s get to attend because the whole school can’t fit in the main gym at once,” Wuhrer said. “This year instead of having students purchase snowmen or flames for their class door for $.25 we decided to give back and collect soda tabs. We collected over 10,000 tabs, which is amazing.”

All of the soda tabs that were collected will be sent to Shriners hospital and will be recycled into wheelchairs for children.

The class of 2018 brought in the most soda tabs prior to the competition and were rewarded with a 200 point lead. Although they didn’t end up victorious they are sure to be tough competition for next years battle.