Let’s just state the obvious here. The juniors were clear of every grade when it came to the Homecoming quad day performances. And in everything else too.

Now, we’ll be the first to admit, the Class of 2024’s quad day in 2021 lacked an identity. This year, however, we came back with a bang.

In our view, the rankings were suspicious at best, with the only correct placement being the freshmen in last place. The seniors and the sophomores were most definitely below-average performances. They had no business sharing the spoils of victory.

From the dazzling k-pop performance or the big hippo emerging from the pond, every single junior performance hit the audience with another “wow.”

The partner dance was nothing but an absolute masterclass. The beginning was a beautiful display, as the boys eloquently met their partners in the middle and hit every beat of “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore.

The all-girls dance also flowed perfectly, with almost everyone knowing the dance. The moves were not easy either and required hours of choreography and practice. Everybody in sync made the dozen formation changes seem integrated into the dance.

And the masterclass in quad day excellence didn’t stop there. The all-boys dance had a barrage of big moments, whether it was water splashing on one of their members or the boys huddling around three members while they performed immaculate solo performances. And don’t even get us started on mosh pit to “Love Sosa” by Chief Keef at the end.

After the juniors’ performance, the seniors frantically planned a practice after being scared to their wit’s end. And the best they could come up with was a guy drinking milk and the football team making a play.

After seeing the sophomores’ performance, we remember our extra practice being canceled after seeing that the highlight of their performance was a well-timed jump. This was easily topped by Kali Duvvuri and Bryan Wang jumping over four people each and fooling the entire crowd into thinking they were injured (this, by the way, was another move copied and done much worse by the seniors). 

And all of this without even mentioning the skit, with amazing costuming, going above and beyond colored shirts. Paul Hulme, who played the Joker, went all out with a professional makeup job and shoes that looked straight out of a mental asylum.

The plot also had a clear beginning, middle and end, something which most of the other grades lacked. In recent years, the school has been complacent with mediocre jokes. Not the juniors. Our punchlines were genuinely funny. Despite having something amazing in every performance, the skit tied all of the elements of the performance together perfectly. 

So how is it possible that the juniors placed third? The only option is that the standings are tilted to make the seniors win every year as per tradition, and there were way more sophomore teachers judging this year.