Two Odyssey of the Mind (OM) teams from Leland Public School will advance to a state tournament in Kentwood next month following first-place finishes in a regional OM competition Saturday in Grand Traverse County.

FIRST PLACE winners in the Odyssey
of the Mind “Tee Structure” Division I
regional competition Saturday are Leland
Public School students (from left) Abby
Stroh, Brennan Flohe, Danielle Merwin,
Elijah Berg, Remi Masse, Jamie McFarlane
and Olivia Fellows.

More than 80 OM teams from dozens of schools, churches and home school groups throughout northwestern Lower Michigan gathered at Traverse City East Junior High School for the regionals. They also included two OM teams from Glen Lake Community Schools, a third Leland team, and one team each from St. Mary School in Lake Leelanau and Pathfinder School in Greilickville.

A newly formed Leland Public School Division I team consisting of third and fourth graders took top honors in their category by solving a "Tee Structure" problem. The team was required to design, build and test a structure made only of balsa wood and glue that supports golf balls, which in turn supports weights. A creative skit performed while weights were applied to the structure before a panel of judges led to the team’s top score. The structure held 368 pounds before being crushed.

REGIONAL CHAMPIONS, one of the two Leland
teams taking top honors in Saturday’s Odyssey
of the Mind competition, pose for a picture.
They are (standing, from left), David Grzebienik,
coach Jenni Henderson, Gunnar Carlson, Liam
Stevenson, Christian Doran and Tristan Peabody;
(kneeling from left) Autumn Decker and Anna Bahle.

OM teams are also scored on their solutions to a "spontaneous" problem, sometimes involving word games, a "hands-on" problem, or a combination of verbal and physical puzzles.

The Leland "Division I" team included fourth graders Elijah Berg, Brennan Flohe, Jamie McFarlane and Danielle Merwin, plus third graders Olivia Fellows, Remi Masse and Abigail Stroh. Co-coaches were parents Neal and Deb Fellows.

Neal Fellows last year was co-coach of this year’s winning Division II team, coached by Jenni Henderson. For the past three years, teams coached by Henderson and Fellows have advanced through state competition to OM World Competition.

Five members of Henderson’s seven-member Division II team last year won the Division I regional and state competitions before advancing to the OM World competition at Michigan State University.

The Leland team last year took sixth place in its category in the World Competition, competing directly against 37 teams from 22 states and four of the 12 foreign countries represented at the competition. More than 17,000 people attended the event. OM World Competition this year will be held May 31-June 3 at the University of Maryland.

The Leland Division II team included fifth graders Anna Bahle, Gunnar Carlson, David Grzebienik and Tristan Peabody, and sixth graders Autumn Decker, Christian Doran and Liam Stevenson. Jenni Henderson’s husband, Jon Henderson, served as this year’s co-coach. The Division II team’s structure held 433 pounds before being crushed.

GLEN LAKE Odyssey of the Mind team
members gathered on the gym floor at
Traverse City East Junior High on
Saturday for an awards ceremony
following regional OM competition.

Both of Leland’s "Tee Structure" teams will travel to East Kentwood High School near Grand Rapids for the state competition on April 19.

A Glen Lake Division II team solving a problem titled "The Wonderful Muses" took third place at Saturday’s regional competition, but will not advance to state competition. The team’s problem involved creating and presenting an original performance about how one of the nine muses from Greek mythology uses her art form to inspire others during two different "moments of inspiration."

A Division II team from St. Mary School and a Division I team from Glen Lake solved a problem called "The Eccentrics," which required students to create and present a humorous performance about three eccentric characters, but involving a problem with an Earth system such as the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, geosphere or hydrosphere.

Another Division II Leland team solved a problem called "Dino Stories" which required creation and presentation of a performance about an "extinction event" during the Mesozoic Era that involves a change of scenery through "technical means." A Division II team from the Pathfinder School also tackled the "Tee Structure" problem, but will not advance to state competition this year.