Senior Nicole Mendez’s Summer 2025 Apple Music playlist played over the Fieldhouse speakers. Seniors John Long, Aden Manzaking and Aidan Carmack flipped in the bouncy castle. Seniors Gary Billings, Austin Bressman, Javon Jacobs and Marcello Nash played basketball. 

“It was good to see all my friends and all the seniors bonding together,” senior Juliette Giselle said. “The games and activities were fun with the seniors. It felt nice to have one last activity before we all parted ways.”

Beginning planning in August of 2024 as Senior Class President, Mendez wanted to start something new and be able to spend a night reliving the field day many students had in elementary school.

“We went into the year wanting to do something fun and different knowing that we needed to start a new tradition for a senior class. We saw that other schools stayed the night. Unfortunately we weren’t able to but we had the ability to stay till 12 p.m.. We were hopeful that the coming seniors would carry on the tradition.”

The Lock In started at nine p.m. and lasted until midnight on May 2, two weeks before the seniors’ last day of school. Mendez and Senior Class Vice President Elizabeth Cramer arrived at eight p.m. in order to set up games such as pickleball, ping pong and pop-a-shot. 

“The games were really centered around what we used to enjoy or do as kids,” senior Lily Wear said. “They were also really fun to do with friends as the last big senior event before graduation.”

After an hour, the seniors came together for a game of dodgeball. 80 students played against each other. During the last round, principal David Ewers joined in. 

“It was fun to be able to play games with friends you may not have had any classes with in three years or so,” Bressman said. “It feels like you’re reconnecting with a lot of people you had been friends with in middle school but hadn’t seen in high school.”

Following the dodgeball game, the Senior Class StuCo announced the winners of a raffle with gift cards, college essentials, a microwave and a miniature fridge as prizes. Students were able to buy raffle tickets for two dollars a piece and ended up raising 280 dollars. 

“I believed that I was going to win something small,” Kiatoukaysi said. “I wasn’t expecting to win the microwave but I’m excited for the microwave cause it’s a freaking microwave. My roommate Hiyab and I are going to be using it for ramen noodles all year long at Kansas State University.”

freshman Avery Given senior Joe Carmody senior John Long senior Caden Ross   senior Levi Cromley and Aiden Carmack senior Aden Manzaking and Tannor Foster senior Patrick Pipes senior Alina Adcox senior Jack Eaton and Gabriella Keller senior John Long senior John Long senior Jack Dunker senior Juju Caesaes senior Jack Dunker senior Maggie Bartlett senior Mallory Labrasca seniors Zak Kohoutek and Jack Eaton