I stated back in March that I would update my OM team's status (March OM Info). Well, update I shall!
My team went to Regionals, competing against 16 teams, and took 1st place in their division! But even more exciting than that if you can believe it, they won the most coveted OM award of all, the Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award! Judges nominate and vote on the winners for this prestigious award so it was an extreme honor to win!
We were giddy with excitement as we began to practice more and more and more for the State Finals that were held in April.
In April, the team competed against 17 teams at State and took 1st place once again, but THIS time, they earned the highest scores in all three categories they're judged on so they had a perfect calculated score of 350! AND!?! They won another Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award! Here's a pic of the Michigan State Champs after they received their 1st place medals and Ranatra Fusca medals!
With that win, the team earned one of two spots at the World Competition representing the State of Michigan for their problem (which was Problem 5, Division 1). We worked and worked and worked even harder preparing for competition knowing that China would be one of our biggest international competitors. We had no idea what competition we'd have with the U.S. teams so we went in with the thought that the team has already proven themselves as winners and that we were here to represent the best they could and that the focus should be on having FUN. And that's exactly what they did!
The team competed against 50 other teams from all over the U.S., China, Singapore, Mexico and Poland at Michigan State University Memorial weekend. They had an amazing long-term performance and, while they received a low score on one of their categories for judging (my co-coach and I contested with the officials to no avail), we felt that the team would still place in the top 10. At the closing ceremonies, they announced 6th, 5th and 4th and didn't call our team name. Then they called 3rd and 2nd and didn't call our team name. They called the 1st place winners and guess what? They called our team name! Yes, our team came in 1st place, beating China by over 18 points! I cried. I cried hard. I couldn't stop so when we had our pictures taken, I was a red-faced, tear-stained, blubbering idiot! I am SO proud that I'm sharing some of the scores here:
Our kids, each one a World Champion, received individual gold medals and one ginormous trophy as seen here:
I am so proud of these kids. The OM year began the first of September and ended on Memorial weekend. They spent NINE MONTHS devoted to this event and had to miss a lot of fun activities and events because of practices, meetings and lots of set creating sessions. It's a long season and we're happy to have a couple months to recover, but we will always look back fondly on this year and remember some of the most amazing moments of our lives. Thank you, Crestwood Team #1886, for such an amazing year! You really socked it to 'em, didn't ya? Congratulations, World Champions - the best in the World!
- Spin Cycle!
Thank you for letting a proud coach brag a little...okay, I bragged a LOT. But thanks for humoring me! ;)
