Advertisement

For the third consecutive year the New Lothrop High School Odyssey of the Mind team has earned a spot among the top OM teams in the world.

Following a second place finish in the 2005 World Finals, and winning the 2006 World Championship title, the team continued its winning tradition by earning the second place spot at the 2007 OM World Finals held May 23-26 at Michigan State's Breslin Center in East Lansing.

The New Lothrop team also has not been beaten by anyone in the United States for the past three years. The team placed behind China in 2005 and this year placed second to Osrodek Psychoedukacji Damb, from Gdansk, Poland.

"It is truly amazing that this team has been able to maintain this level of success over the past three years," stated New Lothrop OM coach Dianne Henige. "The nature of the program, with completely new problems each year, makes it very difficult for a team to remain at the top for consecutive years."

Henige noted that the quality and ingenuity of the teams competing this year was tremendous.

"In particular, the teams from Pennsylvania, Poland, and neighboring Corunna were excellent," she stated. "Our team did very well in the spontaneous portion of the competition and was able to move up into the second place spot. We are very proud to be among the top teams in this great competition."

For OM competition, teams are given a problem that they must solve in a creative way while adhering to specific guidelines. The ultimate goal is to come up with a solution to the problem in a way that is different from everyone else.

"If your presentation is the same as anyone else's, you're not going to worlds," stated coach Henige.

For the 2007 competition New Lothrop competed in Division III of the Tag Em' problem vying against 39 teams from across the world for the right to claim the 2007 World Championship title.

The problem required the teams to design, build, and run small vehicles that make trips and get "tagged" within a tagging zone for their score.

New Lothrop presented a lively and humorous performance with a theme inspired by comic book villains and heroes set in a medieval land ruled by a Puppet King. The team invented two vehicles, a cauldron powered by soy sauce and the loco-destroyer, a battery powered mechanical horse.

Team members include seniors Ryan Dolan, Chet Birchmeier, Ted Ashley, Casey Jacobs, and Markus Lieberknecht along with junior Shauna Henige and sophomore Courtney Rivette.

Lieberknecht, a foreign exchange student from Germany, said he joined OM simply because his friends told him it was great.

"I had never heard of OM but my new friends told me to join so I thought, okay, I'll try it and wow, it was such a lot of fun. It takes a huge amount of time but it was worth it."

Five members of this year's winning team were also members of the 2006 World Championship team and three members still remain from the 2005 winning team.

As to why they have dedicated so much time and energy to this "sport of the mind" the team members agree on two reasons. Lifelong benefits and no bench.

"In OM there's no bench, everyone plays!" stated Shauna Henige, who has participated in OM for 12 years. "Everyone participates and we get lifelong skills from OM. It makes you smarter and more creative. It makes you think differently than others, out of the box."

Teammate Chet Birchmeier agrees.

"There's absolutely no substitute for what we get in OM," he stated. "These critical thinking skills are for life!"

Other top finishers in New Lothrop's division included teams from neighboring Corunna, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Virginia.

The 2007 competition was the largest world final ever. Over 800 teams traveled to Michigan from across the United States and the world to compete. International teams representing a large list of countries included Germany, Poland, China, South Korea, Cuba, Japan, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Canada and the Netherlands.

Each team earned the right to compete at the finals by finishing first or second in their State or National competition by having the most creative and effective solution to their long-term problem choice.

New Lothrop has competed in Odyssey of the Mind for the past 15 years.

To view the official world final scores go to www.odysseyofthemind.com/wf2007/competition_scores.php

To learn more about the Odyssey of the Mind program in Michigan go to www.miodyssey.com

Team member or coach interviews can be arranged by contacting Dennis or Dianne Henige at 810-638-5888, or at dndhenige@centurytel.net, or the New Lothrop Area Public Schools at 810-638-5091.