By Christina Leslie | Staff Writer

Four Catholic schools in the Diocese of Trenton captured the top three prizes in the 22nd annual Donovan Catholic Scholastic Olympics held March 24 in the Toms River high school. Seventh grade teams from All Saints Regional Catholic School, Manahawkin, and St. Dominic School, Brick, tied for first place with Toms River Intermediate North in the competition, while St. Veronica School, Howell, placed second and St. Joseph School, Toms River, brought home the third place trophy.

Sixteen Catholic, public and private schools from Ocean and Monmouth counties sent students to the competition which highlighted academic interest and achievements at the seventh grade level. Schools were grouped into three divisions depending upon their seventh grade enrollment, and each division-winning school received a trophy and was ranked for top overall honors based upon points for medal winners and combined test scores. Individual students who earned medals in each of eight subject areas received financial scholarship letters for future enrollment in Donovan Catholic High School.

Student team members were tested for their knowledge in the fields of art, English, history, mathematics, music, science, spelling and technology. They took written exams, performed computer and hands-on projects, sketched still-life pictures and took part in a spelling bee as they strove to join the ranks of past winners.

Tied as overall contest winner, All Saints Regional Catholic School also topped the division one schools with nine medals in five categories. Team members and their individual honors included Christopher Kotelnick and Belle Weimer, gold and bronze in science; in math, Jessica Raguso-Failla tied for gold while Kailey Matthews tied for bronze; Mary Serviss, gold in English; Amanda Sheppard and Kylene Stewart, silver and bronze in technology, and in music, Kaitlyn Sorbara won the gold while Amanda Harkness took home the bronze medal.

Sharing the first place overall position, St. Dominic School, last year’s second place winner, placed first in the division two category as it earned seven medals in six subject areas. Among the team members who contributed to the tally were Olivia Parlow, silver in science; Mercedes Escandon, gold in history; Kathryn Jorgensen, silver in English; Mary Anne Holler, gold in art; Talianna Bell, silver in technology, and Jenna Wronko and Hannah Minarick, who took home gold and silver in spelling respectively.

St. Veronica School students took home a total of eight medals in six subject areas. Medalists were Mark Skrincosky, silver in math; Noah Novera, bronze in history; Mary Schuld and Emily Madeira, silver and bronze in English; Isabella Amarosa, gold in art; Ava Ossowski and Maggie Orsino, gold and bronze in spelling, and Sophia D’Andrea, silver in music.

Third place winner St. Joseph School’s tally was nine medals in six categories; the student winners were Liam Lynch, tied for silver in math; Povilas Vaivilavicius and Nicholas Novakowski, silver and bronze in history; Gianna Klimakowski, gold in English; Nicholas Calvetto, bronze in technology; Victoria Benesch, bronze in spelling; Mark Finnegan, bronze in math, and in music, Christopher Gallegos and Jorge Pietersen earned silver and bronze respectively.

Five additional schools won medals in either division one or two of the contest. These scholars and the medal awards included:

St. Peter School, Point Pleasant Beach: Elizabeth Pietkowski, silver in science; Nancy Hannon and Casey Ballow, gold and silver in history; Jared Hewitt, gold in technology, and Robert Hannon, tied for bronze in math.

Holy Family School, Lakewood: Odalys Axalca, silver in art.

St. Paul School, Princeton: Elya Amorski, bronze in art.

St. Denis School, Manasquan: Alessia Capozzi, silver in spelling.

St. Aloysius School, Jackson: Madhari Steinert, tied for silver in math; Mariella Diaz, bronze in English; Alexa Usack and Ronan Bova, silver and bronze in art, and Jesse Sulo, gold in technology.