Central's Nathaniel Thornell excels on the court, with Rubik's cubes
Sep. 21—CHEYENNE — Nathaniel Thornell was in elementary school when boredom overcame him during a family vacation in Hawaii.
His aunt, Cynthia Meyrath, handed him a Rubik's cube to help him pass the time. It did that and then some.
Rubik's cubes became such an obsession for Thornell that he sought out competitions and took down state records with the colorful, hand-held puzzles.
"I taught myself how to solve it on that trip," Thornell said. "I've always really liked solving match equations and puzzles. This was a puzzle I could solve and continuously improve at.
"With math puzzles, you solve them and you're done. With this, I could always get better at it. I could solve it faster, and I could even compete at it."
Thornell doesn't compete in as many Rubik's cube events as he used to, but it's still very much a part of who the Cheyenne Central senior is.
That was apparent looking at his legs during the No. 2 singles final at the South Conference tennis tournament Saturday at Cheyenne South. Thornell's left sock was covered in Rubik's cubes as he downed Laramie's Declain O'Connor, 7-5, 6-2 to repeat as the league's champion.
Tennis isn't as much of an obsession for Thornell as cubing, but it's also very much part of his fabric.
Thornell placed fourth in the No. 2 singles draw at last fall's Wyoming state tournament. He'll try to better that finish when this year's state tourney starts Monday in Gillette.
The state tournament was slated to get underway today, but the Wyoming High School Activities Association pushed it back a few days due to the threat of inclement weather.
Thornell played No. 3 doubles as a freshman in 2020, and No. 1 doubles his sophomore season. Both years, his team lost one match short of medalling.
Thornell started playing tennis when his family lived in New Mexico. It's a mental sport as much as it is physical. First-year Central coach Garrett Seamans describes Thornell as a cerebral player.
"His mental game is strong, and he's probably one of the most mentally stable players I know," Seamans said.
The coach pointed to an earlier victory over O'Connor — the defending No. 2 singles state champion — as an example of Thornell's mental toughness. O'Connor took the first set 6-4 before Thornell rallied to win the next two 7-5, 6-3.
"It's hard to lose the first set and come back, but he stayed calm, got the second set and then did what he needed to do in the third," Seamans said. "He persevered, never cracked and never got down on himself."
Thornell is also a precise player who thinks ahead, Seamans said.
"He knows exactly what he wants to do during the point," the coach said. "He's very consistent and keeps the ball in. He's knowledgeable enough to know when his opponent is on the run that he needs to put the ball in specific spots. He's an all-around dynamite player."
Solving Rubik's cubes is about memorizing algorithms and patterns, and executing them repeatedly until all of the colors align. There are more variables in tennis, but there are parallels between Thornell's two passions.
"I don't see it when I'm on the court, but I see it when I'm off the court and watching other people," Thornell said.
Thornell estimates that he now owns as many as 100 Rubik's cubes.
"I get a different one for each birthday," Thornell said. "I usually spend a full day figuring out how to work them. Some shape shift and some change colors. There are a lot of different cubes out there."
Thornell also owns four Wyoming records through the World Cube Association. He has the fastest overall time and fastest average time in both megaminx and pyraminx. The megaminx is a dodecahedron-shaped cube featuring 12 sides and 62 overall pieces. Thornell's best single megaminx time in competition is 1 minute, 50.42 seconds. His average competitive time is 2 minutes, 16.93 seconds.
The pyraminx is pyramid-shaped, and the basic pyraminx has 36 pieces. Thornell has solved it in 2.51 seconds, and has a 4.44-second average.
Thornell has competed on a national level, and even took his skills international during a family vacation to Spain this past summer. He participated in six different disciplines at the Tarragona Side Event and placed fourth in the pyraminx competition.
"I competed against people who only spoke Spanish, and that was pretty awesome," Thornell said.
Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on X at @jjohnke.
