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BOURBON - Of 64 teams, the Triton Elementary Odyssey of the Mind team placed 19th overall at world competition May 26 to 29.
"They did very, very well. They had just a terrific week. They had a great time," said Linda Bowdler, Triton Elementary teacher and Odyssey coach.
"Ours was early in the morning. It was at 8:27 a.m. so we were tired," said Cole Eiser, 10, a member of the team. "With the ones we watched, we knew the competition would be tight."
The event was held this year at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international program for young people from kindergarten to college age that challenges them to solve problems creatively. All 50 U.S. states and 38 other countries compete.
Eiser; Lance George, 9; Jennifer Irvin, 11; Kelly Rettinger, 11; Audrey Speicher, 10; Parker Terry, 8; and Matthew Zelt, 10, make up the division one team. Jennita Speicher is the team's co-coach.
Odyssey of the Mind competition is a detailed and long process. Groups are given five different problems to choose from. After a group chooses a problem within their division, they have four months to work on a solution to the problem.
This year's division one Triton team chose a customer service problem.
At the competition, the students are also given problems to solve spontaneously. The groups are also given points based on style.
"Our spontaneous competition is, you're in a balloon," said Eiser. "A teammate takes the binoculars and says, 'Look at those people, they look like ants.'"
Members of the team competing in the spontaneous competition then took turns, describing what something looked like from the balloon.
Eiser said one of his comments in the competition was that the Empire State Building looked close to the basket.
The week wasn't all competition, though.
Members of the team received pins from the state of Indiana and traded those pins with kids from other states and countries.
Eiser said they shared a hotel with students from Slovakia and Guatemala. There were people from Canada and China, Germany and Columbia.
The Triton team also got to meet Dr. Lonetta Long, also known as "Susan" on "Sesame Street." She was there to show her new book and to accept the Odyssey of the Mind Creativity award on behalf of Joan Ganz-Cooney, co-founder of the Children's Television Workshop.
Bowdler said 9,000 people were at the competition.
The division two Crawfordsville team was the only team from Indiana to place, she said.
"That's typical in Indiana because we don't place high," she said. Because other states like Texas, Michigan and New York have more teams and must go through more rounds of tournaments, she said, they get more experience.
But, Bowdler said, the Triton team "did very well for being their first time."
