Another successful Blanding’s Bowl! We had an exciting first week of July with our Blanding’s Bowl Competition, where the WEL team, Lake County, and others battled for the Championship title on the largest turtle trapping week of the summer.
Folks from the WEL vet team, Lake County, Cook County, Eastern Box Turtle Team, Ornate Box Turtle Team, and others made their way up to Turtletown in Lake County for a week of turtally friendly competition. The week started by setting the competition’s ground rules and pairing up in teams. Dr. Allender and I were paired up as Team Awesome!
Once the teams were assembled, it was game time for everyone. All the teams got to place 15 traps along the field in the locations of their choice. After a long Monday of strategizing for the best trapping spots, all the teams could do was hope for the best. For two days, the Blanding’s Bowl Competition took place with exciting turtle selfies and a nerve-wracking scoreboard each day.
At the end of the week, it all came to an end and the winners were announced… Drumroll please!
On 1st place, we had the determined and unbeatable team Pesto Turtellini, composed of our very own Dr. Kaitlin and Shari (left). On 2nd place, we had the team that proved capable and successful from the very beginning, team Gluten Free Blanding’s Spree, starring Marg and Maddie (middle). On 3rd place, we had the team who started at the bottom and to everyone’s surprise, rose to the top, team Turtle trappin, hand cappin, snippety snappin, never slacking, leading Dr. Laura and Belynda (right).
After announcing our winners, all Blanding’s Bowl participants were invited to a pizza party. And just like that, Blanding’s Bowl 2024 came to its end.
Until next year, fellow contestants!
By: Javelis Marín Castro (she/ella)
