Author: UTJPA
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Member Spotlight: Jena Hancock
Jena Hancock’s love of puzzling began approximately 10 years ago when a girlfriend showed her a collection of Dowdle puzzles and gave her one for Christmas. She was immediately hooked and went on to collect more than 150 Dowdle puzzles, purchasing them at full price before she even knew about Facebook Marketplace. Her enthusiasm led…
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Member Spotlight: Tricia Marotz
Tricia remembers doing puzzles in her youth while listening to ABBA on vinyl records. She rediscovered her love for puzzles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon hearing about speed puzzling, she went on a whim to the USAJPA Nationals in 2024 where she didn’t even finish the puzzle. But somehow she has kept trying. The largest…
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Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Christmas Speed Run
We had an eight-day speed run competition running from Christmas Day through New Year’s Day. The puzzle was a 130-piece puzzle by Galison called Winter Sledding. Makayla Malloy had the fastest single competition time at 0:05:17. Congratulations Makayla! Melinda Whiting finished in second place with a time of 0:05:40 and Jessica Granger finished in third…
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Member Spotlight: Jodi Nichol
One of Jodi’s early memories is doing wooden puzzles on the floor of her grandmother’s kitchen. Jodi has always loved things that engage her brain. Highlights in the jigsaw puzzle world include puzzling with family in local competitions, making so many friends in the puzzle community, and going to nationals last year. She had a…
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Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Fall Speed Run
We had a three-week speed run competition running from October 11 through October 31. The puzzle was a 210-piece puzzle by Boardwalk Puzzle Company called Happy Llama-ween. The artist of the puzzle is Andy C. Ellis. Jolene Ogden had the fastest single competition time at 0:08:02. This is Jolene’s first time winning a UTJPA speed…
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2025 Utah Speed Puzzling Championship Results
The 2025 Utah Speed Puzzling Championship was held on October 11 at Boardwalk Puzzle Company’s headquarters in Lindon, Utah. The championship consisted of four events: solo, pairs relay, pairs and teams. The first event was the 500-piece solo competition and Boardwalk Puzzle Company debuted their new Speedmaster brand with a puzzle titled Just Desserts. First…
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Member Spotlight: Jaymie Fung
Jaymie has loved puzzles since childhood, often taking over the living room floor with every puzzle she owns. Though her adult life keeps her busy, she makes time to puzzle whenever she can. Recently, she’s ventured into speed puzzling and is looking forward to competing in her first event this year. She lives in Heber,…
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Member Spotlight: Erika Hunter
Erika’s puzzling adventure began four years ago, sparked by a simple suggestion from her sister to complete a puzzle together as a family hobby. After finishing that first puzzle, her sister moved on—but Erika was hooked. She discovered that puzzling brought her both joy and relaxation, and soon she was piecing together images of places…
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Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Summer Speed Run
We had a three-week speed run competition running from July 4 through July 24. The puzzle was a 200-piece puzzle by Ceaco called Stitch: Wear Your Shades. Valerie Cunningham had the fastest single competition time at 0:09:24. This is the Valerie’s first time winning a UTJPA speed run competition. Congratulations Valerie! Megan Chung finished in second place with a time…
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Member Spotlight: Karen Cardoza
Karen Cardoza was born and raised in Palo Alto, California. In 1985, she moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University where she received a bachelor’s degree in Nursing. Currently, Karen lives in Springville with her sweet arthritic 15-year-old kitty by the name of Trixie. For the last 30 years, she has worked at Utah…
Utah Jigsaw Puzzle Association 