Maine Spring 2023

Sixty-eight competitors gathered inside Falmouth Elementary School on March 25, 2023, turning the venue into a buzzing arena of turning puzzles and swift hands. Falmouth, Maine, USA welcomed puzzle enthusiasts from across the region for a packed schedule of speedcubing action. The setting provided an energetic backdrop as competitors moved between inspection stations and timing mats across 12 distinct rounds of competition.

Maine Spring 2023 delivered intense action across six official events, testing competitors on puzzles ranging from triangular pyramids to blindfolded solving. The classic Rubik's Cube drew the largest crowd of hopefuls, with 64 entrants stepping forward to test their skills. Throughout the single-day cubing competition, participants pushed their turning speeds and lookahead to secure spots in later stages.

The 3x3x3 Cube final delivered dramatic finishes as Luke Garrett claimed the top spot on the podium with a winning average of 6.97 seconds and a best single of 6.11 seconds. Graeme Stone secured the runner-up position with an average of 7.83 seconds, while Luke Van Laningham rounded out the top three at 8.01 seconds. The premier 3x3 results capped three rounds of tight racing at the timing stations.

Luke Garrett also claimed victory in the 4x4x4 Cube, posting a winning average of 29.98 seconds and a single of 27.23 seconds across the single-round event of 38 participants. Derek White finished second with a 32.48 average, followed closely by Aidan McKenzie in third at 33.23. Garrett added further hardware across the day, demonstrating sharp form across both large cubes and side events.

Luke Van Laningham produced a dominant sweep in the shorter formats, topping three separate leaderboards. In the 2x2x2 Cube, Van Laningham captured gold with a 1.73 average ahead of Luke Garrett at 1.98 and Aedan Bryant at 2.28. In Pyraminx, Van Laningham led the 52-person field with an average of 2.73 seconds, while Garrett took second in 3.58 and Bryant third in 4.52. Skewb brought another victory for Van Laningham with a 2.94 average, besting Saisabari Ramesh at 3.28 and Garrett at 3.51.

Beyond the podium battles, Maine Spring 2023 saw massive breakthroughs across the running order. Charlie Lowe delivered a massive leap in Skewb, recording a personal best of 5.14 seconds, which improved upon their previous benchmark by 44.8 percent. Tyler Scribner contested four events and notched a 38.7 percent improvement on 3x3x3 Cube with a time of 25.98 seconds, while also trimming their Skewb best by 35.4 percent down to 14.16 seconds. Elsa Smolin entered five events, cutting 27.1 percent off their Pyraminx best to hit 14.97 seconds and taking on their first ever attempt at 4x4x4 Cube in 2:50.98. Ashwanth M. Aroon dropped their 3x3x3 Cube time by 32.9 percent to 27.97 seconds and posted a first ever 4x4x4 Cube attempt of 2:04.30.

First-time competitors and fresh event attempts defined the heart of the speed cubing gathering. Jonathan David Means tackled five events, completing a first ever attempt at 4x4x4 Cube in 1:58.92, Pyraminx in 10.13, and Skewb in 15.70. Joseph Felice made their debut at this WCA competition, recording a first 3x3x3 Cube result of 19.76 seconds and an initial Skewb attempt of 13.78 across five entered events. Michael Cowland also experienced their first official meet, logging a Skewb debut of 13.45 seconds and a 4x4x4 Cube mark of 1:42.06. Emmett Harthorne took on their first ever attempt at Pyraminx in 16.95 seconds while dropping their 3x3x3 Cube personal best to 33.19 seconds.

The competition program concluded with the memory-intensive 3x3x3 Blindfolded event, which featured 15 participants over two rounds. James Hildreth captured first place with a top single time of 1:15.28. Joey Mait took second place on the podium with a single mark of 1:24.67, while Luke Garrett completed his fifth podium appearance of the weekend by taking third in 1:26.96. The 18 total podium spots across all six categories went to competitors representing the United States, concluding a vibrant day of solving in Falmouth.