By Christina Leslie | Correspondent

Students from St. Joseph School, Toms River, earned first-place honors in the 14th annual St. Rose High School Invitational Scholastic Bowl held Oct. 23. Representatives from nine Catholic elementary schools in the Diocese of Trenton gathered at the secondary school’s Belmar campus to compete in nine subject areas for both team and individual awards.

Each participating school fielded a team of nine seventh- and eighth-graders who competed, one per subject area, in the categories of current events, English, geography, mathematics, religion, science, social studies, Spanish and spelling. Individual student scores from the 30-minute, multiple-choice tests were combined to determine a team score and overall winner.

St. Joseph students took home the first place trophy, while second and third place honors went to St. Dominic School, Brick, and St. Aloysius School, Jackson, respectively. The top three teams share tuition certificates for use at St. Rose High School during the upcoming academic year, with first place earning a $2,000 tuition certificate and second and third place teams earning $1,000 each.

The scholastic bowl also recognized individual students who excelled in a subject area, each of them earning a medal and a tuition certificate for use at St. Rose High School. The winners in each of the nine subject areas were: current events, Owen Bros, St. Peter School, Point Pleasant Beach; English, Miriam Rice, St. Joseph; geography, Richard Schenck, St. Joseph; mathematics, Caroline Cashman, St. Rose School, Belmar; religion, Christopher Tallarico, St. Rose; science, Danielle Murat, St. Dominic; social studies, Lucas Escandon, St. Dominic; Spanish, Maria Silva, St. Jerome, West Long Branch, and spelling, Tim Lang, St. Rose.

Other Catholic schools in the Diocese which completed in this year’s scholastic bowl were Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Asbury Park; St. Catharine, Spring Lake, and St. Veronica, Howell.