Illing Middle School Meets With Success at Odyssey of the Mind World Finals!

The Illing Middle School Odyssey of the Mind team (Illing 8th graders Will Johnson, Riley Landon, Connor O'Neill, Armando Osorio, Leila Rezai, Angela Simonetti, and Gabby Stonoha), their coaches (David Lee, Ryan Parker), their student assistant coach (MHS sophomore Bijan Rezai), and their parent chaperones (Mark Gorka, Barry O'Neill, Nil Rezai, and Betsy Simonetti) returned Sunday afternoon, May 26th, from a successful trip to the 2013 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals at Michigan State University. The Illing team came in 10th place in the world in their division! They competed against the best times from around the world in the middle school division of their Long Term Problem- “It's How You Look at It.” There were 63 teams in their division representing the best performances from around the world in their problem. “Our kids were smart, savvy, confident, immensely creative, great problem solvers, and they represented our state and our school incredibly well!” said Coach Lee. “Thank you for all of your support for our trip- there was a lot of work put into this experience, and our kids put together something really special. We're incredibly proud of our program!” This was Manchester's third year in a row to have teams compete in the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals (a team must come in first or second place at our State Finals tournament to advance to the World Finals), third year in a row to have a team come in first place at our State Finals, and second year to have a top ten-finishing team at World Finals. Here's a link to the full score list for all the teams in that division: http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/competitions/11000_scores_p5_d2.html