Fourteen students from Long Beach Public Schools’ elementary buildings competed in the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals and achieved excellent results. They comprised two different teams, one of which finished third out of 140 teams from across the globe, while the other earned an impressive 15th place rank. 

Sydney Bergstein (Lindell), Ben Levinson (West), Kate Ragona (East), Violet Richter (Lido), Jordan Soriano (East), Aaliyah Trichter (Lindell) and Sebastian Tricola (West) earned their third place distinction for solving a mystery through deductive reasoning.

Dustin Basnyat (West), Charlotte DePalma (East), Emilio Diaz (Lindell), Brooklyn Quigley (Lindell), Marin Meola (East), Jordi Perez (West) and Shayna Tozer (Lido) presented a solution in which a gibberish character made several nonsense statements that were interpreted to be wise. 

Both teams earned first place trophies earlier this school year at the regional level. They were coached by teachers Justin Sulsky and Douglas MacConnell.