Liberal’s Odyssey team to Worlds after West minds win state

Friday, 02 April 2010 14:31

• Special to the Daily Leader

West Middle School’s team placed first at the state Odyssey of the Mind competition on Saturday, March 27, and is now headed to the World Championships.

West Middle School Odyssey of the Mind students Holden Fitzgerald, the British Paparazzi; Kim Francis, the Rock Star Paparazzi; Rosie Chavez, the Paparazzi Spy; Blake Brenneman, the Coffee Fanatic; Madison Martinez, the Black-Market Saleswoman; Anthony Courkamp, the Coffee Fanatic’s assistant and McKenzie Wright, the Ostrich perform their skit “The Nature Trail’r.” After placing first at the state competition last Saturday in Manhattan, the team is now on to World Finals in East Lansing, Mich. Courtesy photo

Their problem was to construct a vehicle and camper trailer whose driver encounters four obstacles on a nature trail: an animal, a roadblock, a vehicle breakdown and an environmental beautification.

West Middle School Odyssey of the Mind team includes McKenzie Wright, Blake Brenneman, Kim Francis, Anthony Courkamp, Madison Martinez, Rosie Chavez and Holden Fitzgerald. They are coached by Mindy Brunkhardt.

The team, after months of meeting and practice, constructed a vehicle and trailer and wrote, produced, rehearsed, and performed an 8-minute skit, called “Problem 1: Nature Trail’r.”

Their last performance on March 27 earned the team an invitation to attend the World Finals Odyssey of the Mind competition.

The World Finals competition will take place during the week of May 26-28.

State competition happened at Kansas State University in Manhattan. World Finals will be at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

The Odyssey of the Mind team has proceeded through a regional’s contest, stayed on the trail of excellence through state and has advanced to a world’s level competition.

The team of seven members was formed in late October. Since then, they have met during the evenings and weekends, often for four or five hours at a time, to find a solution to their pre-described problem. They practiced and rehearsed, came across more problems, argued, compromised and found solutions.