This past Tuesday, February 2nd, Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction of a short winter wasn’t the most exciting thing on the minds of many lower schoolers here at Oratory.

On Tuesday morning, seven eighth graders and six seventh graders boarded the bus with the Mock Trial team, their destination: the Middle School Consortium General Knowledge Competition. Soon after arriving in the auditorium of Newark Academy, Mrs. Crum had to go and judge in another room, as did all the advisors and chaperones. Somehow, the thirteen of us made it to competition time without getting completely lost. The varsity, or the eighth graders, were up first. After a long-fought battle, it seemed the three teams of OP, Central, and Delbarton were fairly matched. The JV did equally well against those two teams. After getting lost a couple of times, we finally made it to the room we would be competing in next. Both varsity and junior varsity did extraordinarily well, but it seemed as if we were losing to Newark Academy and Morristown Beard. In the third round, we did much better. After a stressful lunch, wondering who made it to the finals and who didn’t, the top four of of JV and varsity were announced. OP varsity sadly did not make the cut – but JV did. Not only that, but they also made it to second place.

And the best part of all, when we returned, it was already the end of 7th period.