New York City – Interregnum was upon us. Despite our current standing in the house competition, I knew House of Clive Staples Lewis had a good chance of conquering the other houses and capturing the Interregnum Cup. Unlike most every other house, House of Lewis decided to accept Interregnum early on and not complain about the extra workload.

The first event was Oration. House of Lewis had the luxury of going last, which could not have been better. Once Josh Staton took the stage, everyone knew who had won. No one else even came close to the charisma that Josh Staton possessed in his oration. When the dust cleared, House of Lewis had ended the first event in first place.

Then, the debate rounds started, and House of Lewis, led by Anthony Randazzo advanced against House of Thatcher. The second round debate against House of Truth was closer, but House of Lewis again came out on top. House of Lewis was guaranteed a 2nd place finish at this point, but could claim 1st with a win over House of Bonhoeffer the next day.

The second day of events began with a short lecture. Once again, House of Lewis had the position of going last. The Houses of Bonhoeffer and Barton had impressive speeches, but the winner was not clear. Mark Del Rosario stepped up to the podium, and despite many technical difficulties, he held his composure. Mark Del Rosario continued the tradition of House of Lewis, being the grand finale of each event. Despite a brilliant performance, he placed 3rd in the event behind Jon Seidl (House of Bonhoeffer) and Heidi Hunnerdose (House of Barton). This brought House of Bonhoeffer closer to conquering the lead from House of Lewis.

Then the final round of debate began. Winning was not an easy task, and students clearly chose Greg Grabowski (House of Bonhoeffer) as the winner, but the judges, trained to judge debates objectively, selected Anthony as the winner. House of Lewis remained in the lead -- and there was one event left: the short performance.

Unlike most events, House of Lewis had the opportunity to perform early in the Short Performance competition. The drama, which was inspired by Omar Waraich, David Lapp, and Matt Lind, was superb. The crowd roared and rolled with laughter, hardly believing the comedic geniuses that were before them. Hands down theirs was the greatest performance, though it went a little over the time limit. But in the end, our biggest threat, House of Bonhoeffer, failed to match up to the competition and their drama did not last even 5 minutes, which penalized them as well. House of Anthony, continuing from Fall Retreat, won the short performance event and established themselves as “drama queens at King’s.”

That night I was thrilled and relieved to hear the Interregnum MC Susan St. Cyr announce before the whole school that House of Lewis had won the first ever Interregnum Cup. This was as much of a shock to me as it was for everyone else. I knew we were in the running for first, but did not know we had achieved our goal of winning such a prestigious competition of intellectual prowess. It was a proud moment for all of us and extremely well deserved by all participants that put forth such effort to ensure our victory. As Dr. Peter Wood handed the cup to our proud house members, and David Lapp held the cup up for a kiss in Pete Sampras form, I realized that the House of C.S. Lewis had claimed what could never be claimed again, the first ever TKC Interregnum Cup.