Collingswood Odyssey of the Mind Finishes 5th in the World!

 East Lansing, MI — Three Collingswood teams competed with more than 700 from around the planet at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals May 21-24 at Michigan State University. Students traveled to East Lansing, MI from all over the US as well as France, Germany, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, and Switzerland.

Odyssey of the Mind (OM) is a global competition started in 1978 challenging students from 2nd to 12th grade to solve open-ended creative problems through storytelling, engineering, and design, and all of it is student-driven.

●      Team Space Rats, coached by Ben Garvey and Kelly Zenfell, placed 5th in Division 3, Problem 5: AstronOMical Odyssey!, the second highest place Collingswood has received in its 13 year program history. Two team members were awarded scholarships from Odyssey of the Mind. Sasha Garvey received the COU Odyssey Visionary Scholarship and Finn Sullivan received the Harold Kurtz Memorial Scholarship.

Team Space Rats is composed of Collingswood High School students Sasha Garvey, Nico DiPinto, Finley Jenne, Finn Sullivan, Jade Wilcox, Ruby Rosato, and Cassidy Reilly.

●      Team Hamsters, coached by Ed Beitz and Clare Tracy, placed 12th in Division 1, Problem 5: AstronOMical Odyssey!

Team Hamsters attend Zane North and Tatem Elementary schools and consist of Jack Beitz, June Beitz, Alistair Hyde, Louie Tumolo, Caleb DeLuca, Dylan Mlcoch, and Olivia Marsallo.

●      Team LarryCon, coached by Ellen Rosenholtz and Stephen Hwang, placed 15th in Division 3, Problem 2: Mech-Animal Sidekick

Team LarryCon is made up of Margot Crabtree, Owen Garvey, Ben Rambo, Rosalie Vitale. Sylvia Rudolph and Ethan Slabyk. They attend Collingswood High School, Collingswood Middle School, and home school.

In Collingswood, Odyssey of the Mind has been offered through the Collingswood Recreation Program since 2012, with registration opening each September. The program helps nurture young artists, engineers, scriptwriters, and inventors by empowering students to build original machines, scripts, and props entirely on their own. Over 120 kids and over 50 volunteers from all over Collingswood participated this year.

Full season results

Division 1 (Grades 3-5)

Problem 1 - The OM-Mazing Race

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 3rd place

●      NJ State Finals: 8th place

●      Coaches: Robin Bonfield, Melissa Fickett

Problem 1 - The OM-Mazing Race

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 4th place

●      Coaches: Angelica Julian, Leigh Van Duzer

Problem 2 - Mech-Animal Sidekick

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 2nd place

●      NJ State Finals: 7th place

●      Coaches: Cara Boiler, Adam Gordon

Problem 2 - Mech-Animal Sidekick

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 1st place

●      NJ State Finals: 6th place

●      Coaches: Julie Blust

Problem 3 - Classics... Cooking with Books

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 1st place

●      NJ State Finals: 6th place

●      Coaches: Geoff DiMasi, Matt Erdely

Problem 3 - Classics... Cooking with Books

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 2nd place

●      NJ State Finals: 7th place

●      Coaches: Kenneth Allendoerfer

Problem - Save Me Structure

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 3rd place

●      Coaches: Rebecca Finkel, Erica Schmid

Problem 5 - AstronOMical Odyssey!

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 4th place

●      Coaches: Jess Todd

Problem 5 - AstronOMical Odyssey!

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 1st place

●      NJ State Finals: 2nd place

●      World Finals: 12th place

●      Coaches: Ed Beitz, Clare Tracy

Division 2 (Grades 6-8)

Problem 2 - Mech-Animal Sidekick

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 1st place

●      NJ State Finals: 3rd place

●      Coaches: Rachel Rubin, Brian Sidharta

Problem 5 - AstronOMical Odyssey!

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 4th place

●      Coaches: Regan Kaiden, Stavros Hadjitheocharous

Problem 5 - AstronOMical Odyssey!

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 8th place

●      Coaches: Smith Hutchings

Problem 5 - AstronOMical Odyssey!

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 2nd place

●      NJ State Finals: 3rd place

●      Coaches: Doug Robbins, Patrick Reidy

Division 3 (Grades 9-12)

Problem 2 - Mech-Animal Sidekick

●      Coastal Plains Regional Tournament: 1st place