Puzzling is usually a peaceful hobby stretched out over a couple of days. But some Sitkans looked to change the pace last week (9-3-26), piecing puzzles together in a race against the clock. Listen here:
Hailey Rinella, Charlie Bloede, Grace Billok, and Tess Wiegmann are going as fast as they can. But they’re not running a relay. They’re working on a jigsaw puzzle.
It’s Sitka Public Library’s first-ever speed puzzling contest. Nine teams are racing to complete a 500-piece picture of a seaside town. Under a pale yellow sun, boats sail around a striped lighthouse. There are shops selling ice cream and lobster. It’s an illustration of a quiet coastal town. But some competitors are far from calm.
A stop watch projects onto a screen in the front of the room. Big blue numbers loom over the puzzlers, counting every millisecond.
Separating pieces by their colors, a couple of teams seem to have a strategy. Like Steffi Rusk’s crew, who sits calmly around their table, shuffling pieces around with confidence.
“He is building the edge after we find them while we’re flipping so that everything is right-side up,” Rusk explains. “And then on this side of the table, we’re sorting by color or distinctive characteristics like letters.”
Rusk says she’s wanted to do a speed puzzling competition for years. Her group trained a handful of times before the contest. Practicing as a pair, their fastest time was around an hour and a half. But today, they have an extra teammate.
“I’m interested to see how the time changes with the three of us now,” Rusk says.
As the timer creeps past the 15-minute mark, most teams have the puzzle’s border in place. Across the room, Rinella, Bloede, Billok, and Wiegmann slowly rotate around their table, like a game of musical chairs.
With half an hour on the clock, the intensity grows by the minute. Puzzlers scramble through the piles of pieces as they string the seascape together.
“There it is. That’s the lighthouse,” Bloede says. “The piece that was stumping us all along was the lighthouse.”
With the lighthouse in place, the four women have their sights set on the finish line. In just 38 minutes and nine seconds, the team of four has emerged victorious. Their reward? A $20 gift card to Old Harbor Books and something from the library’s prize cart for each of them.
“Hands off puzzle pieces,” Adult Services Librarian Margot O’Connell says. “We have second place winner.”
Just minutes later, Rusk’s team — the one that practiced — takes second. But practice can’t totally make up for an extra set of hands.
“They had one more person that got them those extra 10 minutes right there,” Rusk says.
Maybe another teammate was their missing piece. Or maybe the winning team had a ringer in Rinella.
“I was a child puzzle speed making star back in 2007,” Rinella claims.
“She actually set the Guinness World Record for fastest child puzzler,” Bloede says.
“No, that’s a lie,” Rinella admits.
With the next speed puzzling competition set for December, the reigning champs say they’re already planning their return. They joke that’s only if they’re allowed back, and warn Sitkans to watch out.
But the secret to success still isn’t certain. Is it better to rely on thought-out tactics or tempo? Maybe it’s teamwork. And for the four friends, that answer seems to be a good fit.
