Six Odyssey of the Mind Teams Advance to World Finals

In addition to team successes, Fort Couch Middle School student, Drew Holzer, received a prestigious OMer Award for demonstrating exceptional resilience throughout the season. After sustaining a severe concussion and continuing through recovery challenges, Drew consistently showed up, contributed to his team and embodied the true spirit of an Odyssey of the Mind competitor.

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Performance Problem: “Taller Tales of John Jivery”

Teams from Boyce Middle School and Upper St. Clair High School competed in this humorous performance challenge, which required students to create an original tall tale featuring a hero, an origin story and visual weather effects to represent emotions.

Boyce Middle School — 1st Place, Division I

• Team members: Abby Elders, Josie Hermoni, Jackson Hollihan and Carter Kaldon
• Coaches: Loreleigh Elders and Sarah Hollihan

Upper St. Clair High School — 1st Place, Division III

• Team members: Daniyal Badaruddin, Kurt Baran, Geneva Eisinger, Lauren Ginsburg, Artie McCallum, Preston McLeod and Ian Putorti
• Coaches: Dawn Predmore and Nate Eisinger

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Technical Problem: “Lost in OMerland”

Teams from Baker Elementary School and Upper St. Clair High School tackled this challenge, designing a voice-activated “trip assistant” to help explore a new location. All props and backdrops were required to fit inside a single suitcase at the start of the performance.

Baker Elementary — 1st Place, Division I

• Team members: Max Allen, Jackson Beck, Erika Bonnell, Cora Dunkin, Chase Ingalise, Harrison Snavely and Lily Wang
• Coaches: Betsy Allen, Nicole Beck and Kelly Ingalise

Upper St. Clair High School — 2nd Place, Division III

• Team members: Nigel Bailey, Daphne Collins, Parker Sams, Thea Sheuerle and Ashwin Vasudevan
• Coaches: Sarah Sams and Jacob Collins

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Classics Problem: “Classics… The Epic Quest”

Teams from Fort Couch Middle School and Upper St. Clair High School competed in this colorful storytelling challenge featuring an epic poem, hero, sidekick, beast and dramatic rescue.

Fort Couch Middle School — 2nd Place, Division II

• Team members: Lydia Calkins, Ava Fingal, Caroline Fingal, Drew Holzer, Sophia Lee, Keira Mycoff and Rehana Rai
• Coaches: Josh Mycoff and Doug Calkins

Upper St. Clair High School — 2nd Place, Division III

• Team members: Scarlett Burgess, Enoch Katru, Violet McLeod, Seth Pedretti, Luciana Putorti, Lydia Sliski and Austin Szpara
• Coaches: Kyle Burgess and Kristy Szpara

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At the State Finals, 156 teams from across Pennsylvania competed by division in one of five problem categories: vehicle, technical, classics, balsa and performance. In total, 11 Upper St. Clair teams advanced to and competed at the state-level competition.

Odyssey of the Mind is an international STEAM program that fosters creative problem-solving skills, teamwork and ownership in students from grades K through 12. One of the trademarks of the program is its “no outside assistance” philosophy. All ideas, scripts, props, solutions and paperwork are generated by the team members with no input from coaches, parents or teachers.

For more information about Odyssey of the Mind in Upper St. Clair or to register for summer Ingenuity Camp, June 22-26 at Fort Couch Middle School, visit www.uscootm.com or email uscootm@gmail.com.