By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CENTRAL PARK — Students from all over New York City gathered in Central Park Thursday to compete at cracking the Rubik's Cube, the 30-year old brightly colored, six-sided brainteaser.
Kids ages 7 to 13 broke personal records at the competition, in some cases solving the puzzle in less than 60 seconds.
"The trick is to keep it steady, keep it straight and just keep going," said Brooklyn student Bernie Acevedo, 11, who won second place in one of the competitions for his age group with a time of 1 minute, 6 seconds.
Staten Island student Samuel Neverson, 10, came in second place for his age group.
"My favorite part of figuring out the cube is the confusing parts. I detest confusion," Neverson said.
The world record for restoring the cube is 19 seconds, won by Ronald Brinkmann in a 1982 West German Championship.
The competition is part of an after-school program sponsored by the Parks Department. The program aims to reinvent the Rubik's Cube as a math and science tool in the hopes of raising test scores. The puzzle can teach important concepts such as perimeter, volume, angles and even algorithms, the program's senior vice president, Holly Riehl, 47, said.
But that doesn't make the old-school toy any less fun, she says.
"Kids gravitate to it, just like youth of former generations did," Riehl said.
Each of the thirty competitors had unique reasons for taking up the hobby, and some even said that they gave up television for three weeks to practice for the event.
First place champions included Christopher Chisholm, 10, from the Bronx; Lusiana Guerroro, 9, from Staten Island; Ali Ibrahim, 11, from Queens; Awa Kone, 11, from Manhattan; Ruben Zhang, 10, from Brooklyn; and Amy Pimental, 12, from the Bronx.
Winners were joyous after the competition, but perhaps not as much as their mentors, who accompanied them at the competition booth.
"I am extraordinarily proud of her, " Bronx after-school computer science teacher Albert Davis, 55, said about his student Pimental. Her victory— solving the cube in 56.91 seconds — was about more than just winning a game, Davis said.
"I wanted it for the Bronx, to win this. A lot of people don't think the Bronx has great kids, but they do," he said. "And now it's irrefutable."
