District News

Wesley Zuniga, a seventh-grade student at Tennyson Middle School, visited Seattle, WA, this past summer to go to the Rubik’s WCA World Championship 2025 for speedcubing. Since receiving a Rubik’s Cube for Christmas in 2022, he persisted in learning how to solve the puzzle, which led to a dream to attend the world championship. 

“I thought the Rubik’s Cube was really cool, but I could never solve it,” Wesley said. “I looked at a tutorial and thought, ‘I’m going to do this! I’m set on solving this.’”

Wesley’s mom, Melody Zuniga, said Wesley was hooked. He watched YouTube videos and learned different strategies for solving the Rubik’s Cube and his passion grew from there. 

“Wesley went down a rabbit hole and wanted to learn more about cubing and how to get faster,” Melody said. “We watched a Netflix documentary called The Speed Cubers and the rest was history!”

Wesley learned there was a competition in Austin in June of 2024, so Melody and their family headed to Austin to attend the competition. 

“He met his people,” Melody said. “They knew all the terms he uses in speedcubing. There was a place for everybody, and he was hooked. We started going to regional competitions and he kept beating his time.”

As Wesley continued to get better at his craft, his next step was to attend the Rubik’s WCA World Championship. This event happens every two years in varying locations across the globe. When he found out the 2025 event was going to be hosted in Seattle, he was thrilled and asked his parents if they could go. 

“We haven’t been to Washington before, so our family made it our summer vacation destination,” Melody said.

Melody added that the US had not hosted the event since 2013, so this was Wesley’s chance to attend. He was able to meet two of the speedcubers he looks up to - Max Parks and Felix Zemdegs. 

“Going to the WCA World Championships is like the Olympics for cubing or the Oscars for cubing! I saw my icons - it was awesome. I felt so lucky,” Wesley said. 

While the family wanted Wesley to see his heroes and that scale of competition, they did not expect for Wesley to compete. 

“He qualified to compete in the competition for a certain time bracket!” Melody said. “There were four events where he met the time, so we were setting our alarms for 7 a.m. to register on the day of the event. It was like Disneyland for speed cubers.”

Wesley said it was really cool to feel the hype at the competition.

“It’s just a vibe or knowing that there are people all around the world liking what you like,” Wesley said. 

As a world competitor, Wesley wants to continue honing his skills in cubing. The following world championship will be hosted in Sweden. 

Wesley’s parents are in full support of his hobby, but Sweden may not be on the list for a family vacation in 2027. 

“We told him if he wants to fundraise to go to Sweden, then go for it!” Melody said. 

They are proud of their 12-year-old, speedcubing world competitor and excited to see what’s next for him. 

View the exclusive interview on the Waco ISD YouTube channel!