The St. Paul School Lions roared to a first place finish in the 33rd annual Scholastic Olympics held in Trenton Catholic Academy, Hamilton, Nov. 13. The Princeton scholars were 14 of the roughly 100 students from seven grammar schools in the Diocese who completed in seven academic fields for medals, trophies and the thrill of victory.

The Scholastic Olympics, open to eighth grade students in Mercer and northern Burlington Counties, challenges the young scholars to compete with one-hour written exams in the fields of art, English, history, mathematics, religion, science and spelling. The top three students in each subject area are awarded gold, silver or bronze medals for their achievements; individual student scores are compiled to arrive with the final overall school team placement.

Trenton Catholic Academy students, members of the school’s Monsignor McCorristin Chapter of the National Honor Society, assisted in administering the tests, providing refreshments and hosting the awards ceremony, explained TCA Olympics moderator Kathleen Faraglia. Sister of St. Joseph Dorothy Payne, TCA president, and Michele Neves, director of TCA Upper School, presented the awards.

The St. Paul School team, coached by eighth grade teachers Sara Beyer and Meghan Dwyer, placed first overall and saw six students achieve individual honors: Emma Tate (first place, art); Ellie Alvarez (second place, religion); Maddie Lamb (second place, science), and Madeline Russell (first place, spelling), while Gabriela Cano and Megan Elwell placed first and third in English respectively.

Teams from St. Ann School, Lawrenceville, and last year’s winner St. Gregory the Great Academy, Hamilton Square, tied for second place overall. Individual winners from St. Ann School included Carly Rowcotsky (second place, art); Seth Solidum (second place, mathematics); Casey Klek (third place, science), and Angela Roberts (second place, spelling).

St. Gregory the Great Academy students Abigail Klimas (second place, English); Michael Robedee (third place, history); Chad Nelson (first place, mathematics), and Julia Lencovich (third place, religion) also took home individual medals of achievement.

Third place Trenton Catholic Academy saw two of its students, Antonio Quiles and Christopher Spinden, place first and second in the history competition.  Incarnation-St. James School, Ewing, saw William Dowlou place third in art, Dennis Liu take home the third place medal for mathematics and Niah DeAlday achieve third place in spelling.

Other individual winners included St. Raphael School, Hamilton, student Grace Hofmann (first place, religion), and St. Paul School, Burlington, student Timothy Hilferty (first place, science).

St. Paul principal Ryan Killeen, noted, “Our students have really been preparing for the Scholastic Olympics for nine years.Every St. Paul teacher helped build this team.”