USC teams reach Top 10 at OM World Finals
Two Upper St. Clair teams placed among the top 10 in their divisions at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, held recently at Iowa State University. Nearly 850 teams from as far as Mexico, Poland, Singapore and China competed in the international competition. In their fourth trip to the OM World Finals, Upper St. Clair High School students earned third place for their performance and seventh place overall. Their team, which competed in the division three (high school) level for the first time, includes ninth-graders Victoria Cuba, Brianna Lin, Joseph Markovitz, Max Murtough, Sammie Seewald, Constantine Tripodes and Eric Wang. A team of Boyce Middle School students earned a ninth place finish in division one (elementary). The team is comprised of fifth-graders Jake Casares, Anastasia Gzikowski, Esha Lathia, Owen Mucho, Ben Murtough and Ben Seewald, and fourth-grader Peter Markovitz. This marked the team’s first time competing in the OM World Finals. Both teams – coached by Meridith Markovitz, Laura Murtough and Stacey Seewald – advanced to the World Finals by placing among the top two at both the regional and state tournaments in the spring. The Boyce Middle School team solved the technical problem, “Emoji, Speak for Yourself.” The Upper St. Clair High School team solved the classics problem “Mockumentary! Seriously?”