Hampton students qualify for Odyssey of the Mind World Finals

A team of Hampton Township School District elementary students is heading for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals.

Third- through fifth-graders Emma Osborn, Charles Lamb, Josephine Kurasch, Joshua Pearl, Ethan Barley, Edward Sager and Lincoln Verbofsky will represent Hampton from May 24-27 at Michigan State University. The school district’s Odyssey of the Mind Association is raising funds to send the students to the competition.

The team was one of six from Hampton that participated in the Western Pennsylvania Regional tournament on March 4. The students placed second in the Division I Technical problem, for which they built a Rube Goldberg device, qualifying them to advance to the Odyssey of the Mind state tournament on April 1 at Lock Haven University. There, they placed first in their division.

At the regional tournament, a team of students in kindergarten through second grade took part in a non-competitive division, and another group of third- through fifth-graders placed ninth in the Division I Moving Vehicle problem, for which they built a vehicle that held at least one team member and had the theme of a pirate ship.

A middle school team placed fifth in the Division II Classics category, creating a biographical musical about a historic figure.

Also, a combined middle school and high school team placed first in the Division III Balsa Structure category, building structures made of only balsa wood and glue that held over 100 pounds. That team also advanced to the state tournament, and placed sixth in its division problem overall and second in spontaneous problem solving.

Members are Olivia Dietz, Ashlee Marte, Lu Santos, Marli Dankmyer, Ashley Rothenberg, Megan Troup and Teagan Turcsanyi.

Those who are interested in sponsoring the team that qualified for the World Finals can visit htsdodysseyofthemind.weebly.com for more information.