Five DV teams go to Odyssey of the Mind world finals

WESTFALL n Five teams from the Delaware Valley School District have earned a chance to compete against the best teams from around the world in Odyssey of the Mind. For the high school, two division III teams will continue their season. The state champion DVHS technical team designed a performance of a giant comic book story. The problem required the small and large portrayals to imitate each other. One team member was a comic book artist working on the story, while the other team members acted out a large-scale portrayal of the comic. When the artist spilled his coffee over his drawings, the team’s props (and one of their characters) melted down. The technical team is coached by DVHS English teacher Jim Fazzino. Team members are Mackenzie Gilpin, Megan Gumpper, Lauren Merikas, Karalee Morgan, Samantha Morgan, Kaelyn Stadtmueller, and Dan Tschop, The other high school team headed to world finals is the vehicle team, coached by Mr. Scott Llewellyn, a math teacher at DV Middle School and a former team member himself. The team members are Ryan Balton, Steve Boyle, Justin Jannone, Sarah McKean, Eric Neumann, Mike Osterberg, and Robert Pike. The DVHS vehicle team solved the problem called “Tag ‘em.” requiring teams to build a small vehicle that crosses a taped out course and is tagged by a tagging device. A scoring dispute over the DVHS vehicle team’s use of a crane to suspend a team member who tagged their vehicle prevented a victory. But the team received a Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award for the design of their walking vehicle, a miniature mouse that pushed a cart across the gym floor. The award is given to teams who demonstrate excessive creativity. Only three were awarded among the nearly 200 teams competing. This is the second year in a row that the DVHS vehicle team has received the Pennsylvania Ranatra, allowing them to advance to World Finals. DVHS also had an individual recognized at the award ceremony. Ryan Balton, of the vehicle team, received the Line Mountain Scholarship award of $2,000. The scholarship is presented in memory of a group of Odyssey team members who perished in a fire in 1998. The district had one other state champion, the DVMS division II classics team. The team competed in the problem called “Around the World in 8 Minutes.” The team’s skit centered around a theme of environmental awareness on the planet Earth, including global warming. The team is coached by Laura Walsh and DVMS art teacher Marylynn Profeta. The team members are Mary-Kate Burns, Sean Burns, Daniel Cella, Nadége Hoeper, Casey Markowitz, Rachel McKean, and Linden Walsh. They competed against 18 teams, the most in any other division in which DV advanced to Worlds. The DV Elementary School vehicle team received second place in the “Tag ‘em” problem. Because sixth grade classes now take place at the elementary school, the team competed in division II. They had an ocean/fishing theme, where vehicles designed as different aquatic wildlife, took “bait” from their fishing rod tagging device. Last year, the DVES vehicle team was the first team in school history to bring home the bronze medal from World Finals. The team is coached by Michael Hunt. The team members are Emily Belsterling, Dylan Brown, Brendon Grady, Dana Hunt, Luke Riexinger, Wyatt Sebring, and John VanVynck. The final team from Delaware Valley advancing to World Finals is the Shohola Elementary School technical team. This team received second place in “The Large and Small of It” for division I. The team is coached by Kathy Tschop, a teacher at Shohola. Olivia Arellano-Votaw, Laura Brown, Anna Chamberlin, Victoria Coleman, Jed Daniel, Justin Parnga, and Deanna Trupia are the seven team members from Shohola. These teams will travel to Michigan State University in East Lansing for the world competition from May 23 to 26. Over 800 teams from 26 countries will be on hand. Delaware Valley will be sending the most teams from any Pennsylvania district. For more information about Odyssey of the Mind, visit www.odysseyofthemind.com. The PA state Web site is www.paodyssey.org.