Mt. Sinai High School Wins 8th Annual Bay Scallop Bowl

2009 Bay Scallop Bowl winner Mt. Sinai High School. Back row- Coach David Chase, Elizabeth Delio, and Coach Andrew Matthews. Front row- Elliot Kurtz, Matthew Clark, Russell Leiborwitz, and Kenneth Gunasekera.

February 8, 2009 -- Mt. Sinai High School defeated rival Churchville-Chili High School to win the 8th Annual Bay Scallop Bowl held at Stony Brook University on February 7th, 2009.The Bay Scallop Bowl is one of 25 regional competitions that take place nationwide as part of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, an annual competition that tests high school students on their knowledge of oceanography and related disciplines.

After many rounds of competition between the 16 participating teams from across New York, Longwood High School, Saint Ann's School, and Mt. Sinai High School had each lost only a single round, and last year’s Bay Scallop Bowl winner, Churchville-Chili High School, was undefeated.

In round 9, Saint Ann's faced Longwood for a chance to progress to the finals. Longwood squeaked past Saint Ann's and eliminated them from the competition by correctly answering a bonus question to put Longwood ahead just as time expired. In round 10, Longwood lost a tough match to Mt. Sinai.

The 2nd place team, Churchville-Chili. Back Row- Steven Brown, Julie Morningstar, and Patrick Chamberlain. Front Row- Sean Tanner and Brendan Linehan. Not pictured- Coach Karl Biedlingmaier.

Mt. Sinai, whose one loss of the day was to Churchville-Chili, faced that team again in round 11. If Churchville-Chili had won round 11, they would have won the competition. Instead, Mt. Sinai dominated the round, forcing a final round to decide the winner.

It was a nail-biting finish. Despite earning zero points in the first buzzer round, Churchville-Chili performed well in the team challenge questions and surged in the second buzzer round.

However, Mt. Sinai’s initial lead proved to be insurmountable. The final score was Mt. Sinai 66, Churchville-Chili 52.

“The competition was intense,” said Mt. Sinai team captain Matthew Clark. “We had a lot of close matches.” Clark explained that after their loss to Churchville-Chili, his team had a meeting and devised a secret new team strategy. “I think getting knocked into the one-loss bracket actually helped us. It forced us to keep playing instead of resting, and enabled us to build up momentum.”

“There are lots of good teams here,” said Churchville-Chili team captain Patrick Chamberlain. “We consider our day successful if we make it past round five.”

Members of the 1st place Mt. Sinai High School team will each receive a cash prize of $1000 and will represent New York in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl finals in Washington D.C. this April. Each member of the 2nd place team, Churchville-Chili High School, will receive a cash prize of $750. Each member of the 3rd place team, Longwood High School, will receive $500. The team from The Stony Brook School was selected for the sportsmanship award and won several oceanography books for their team library.

At the concluding ceremony, William Wise, Bay Scallop Bowl Coordinator, thanked his co-Event Coordinators, Kim Knoll and Tara Duffy, as well as the army of volunteers that made this event possible. “I think we succeeded in our goal to make this event purposeful, but fun,” he said.

Left: The Stony Brook School coach George Linzee and representatives from The Stony Brook School team. The team members are Samantha Lee, Daniel Acker, Richard Barker, John Mahon, and Alexander Reiner. Right: The 3rd place team, Longwood High School. Christopher Graf, Jack Lupfer, Stuart Cohen, Mary Rosillo, and Coach Peter Osswald. Not pictured, Alyssa Liguori.