By Christina Leslie | Staff Writer

A team of young scholars from St. Peter School, Point Pleasant Beach, took home top team honors and placed first in three individual categories during the 11th annual St. Rose High School Invitational Scholastic Bowl held Oct. 27. Students from nine diocesan grammar schools competed in the St. Rose, Belmar, campus event in nine subject areas for both team and individual accolades.

Each competing school sponsored a team of seventh and eighth grade students who vied, one per subject area, in the categories of current events, English, geography, mathematics, religion, science, spelling and social studies. Individual scores from the 30-minute multiple choice tests were combined to determine team scores and the overall winner. Students were eligible to compete individually in a ninth subject area, Spanish; these scores were not included in the teams’ totals.

In addition to the first place trophy, the St. Peter team took home a $2,000 tuition certificate for use at St. Rose High School. Second winners St. Dominic School, Brick (which also placed second in last year’s competition) and third-place St. Catharine School, Spring Lake, each earned $1,000 tuition certificates.

Individual grammar school students who excelled in a subject area were awarded $1,000 tuition certificates for use at the host Belmar high school. The winners in each of the regular subject areas were: in current events, Joseph Peracchio, St. Denis, Manasquan; in English, Sarah Valente, St. Peter; in geography, Chris Kuran, St. Aloysius, Jackson, and Ethan Harm, St. Peter (tie); in mathematics, Caitlin Chiu, St. Joseph, Toms River; in religion, Liam Mailley, St. Dominic, and Maria Wong, St. Veronica, Howell (tie); in science, Ryan Mullins, St. Joseph; in spelling, Clare Toman, St. Catharine; and in social studies, Matthew Tiernan, St. Dominic, Casey Ballou, St. Peter, and Conor Carrigy, St. Veronica (tie). The winner in the Spanish subject area test was Juliana Vivenzio, St. Dominic.

New to the competition this year was the Compass Award, named to mirror the St. Rose High School theme, “Let integrity be our compass.” Awarded to the student who designed the most innovative service project he or she thought could be initiated with the help of an adult, the entries were designed to reflect on four dimensions, noted scholastic bowl moderator and St. Rose guidance counselor Ann Pfister-Brown.

“A compass is to help navigate, survey and to assist in getting a bearing, so we are challenging our students to carefully reflect on personal integrity, academic integrity, integrity in relationships and integrity in societal responsibilities,” she informed the students at the start of the competition.

Liam Mailley of second place St. Dominic School took home the inaugural Compass Award with his project to create a Bible school for the homeless “to give them hope and to reassure them that God loves them.”

Other Catholic grammar schools from the Diocese which competed in the scholastic bowl this year were St. Rose, Belmar, and Holy Innocents, Neptune.

Sister of St. Joseph Kathy Nace, principal of St. Rose High School, welcomed the eager competitors with an opening prayer. High school student ambassadors led the grammar school students to classrooms for the testing period, then back to the gaily-decorated cafeteria filled with parents, teachers and friends for the awards presentation.

Social media was abuzz with the news of the wins, with all three trophy winning schools, and scholastic bowl host St. Rose, posting pictures of hoisted trophies and expressions of joy at the victories. “The competition was close,” admitted Pfister-Brown. “The bowl was a lot of fun and it was so cute to see all the students studying. There were so many family and friends that the [school’s Little Theatre, the traditional site of the awards ceremony] couldn’t hold them.”