M-W middle school captures a ‘stellar’ sixth place finish at Odyssey of the Mind world finals
AMES, Iowa — The Monroe-Woodbury Middle School Odyssey of the Mind team captured sixth place in last weekend’s Odyssey of the Mind world finals, giving a Division II world class performance for “A Stellar Hangout.”
The team scored 319.88 out of 350 points, a “stellar” result considering there were 76 teams competing in this category.
Capturing first place was Ośrodek Psychoedukacji of Gdansk, Poland, with 335.58 points.
The field of participating schools presenting “A Stellar Hangout” was a global one, with teams from Mexico, Switzerland, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Canada and Qatar competing in addition to domestic teams from Texas, California and others representing the full continental U.S.
Coach Joanne McInerney said she was extremely proud of the group’s performance, telling The Photo News last Saturday night the team even beat out the first place New York State team from Geneseo Middle School.
Monroe-Woodbury took second place in that recent state competition held in March at SUNY Binghamton, and its second place ranking afforded the team the privilege of attending world competition.
Because Monroe-Woodbury’s long-standing policy is to fund only first place teams for world competition, the team successfully took on the challenge of raising about $10,000 it needed to make the Iowa trip.
Team members are Anushree Buragohain, Jamie Calub, Colin Davidson, James Dawson, Khushi Girish, Shreya Girish and Isabelle Varghese.
While Monroe-Woodbury students participate in local, regional, state and national competitions, OM is the only competition where the possibility exists for students to compete against other teams from Europe, Asia or North America. World competition rotates between sites in Iowa and Michigan.
Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics and bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and world level with budgets ranging only from $125 to $145.
Already, the 2019 long-term problem synopses are available for Monroe-Woodbury students to mull over for when tryouts for the 2019 teams and regional competition take this fall.
- Nancy Kriz