By Christina Leslie | Correspondent

Students from St. Dominic School, Brick earned first place honors in the St. Rose High School Invitational Scholastic Bowl held Oct. 25. Representatives from ten diocesan grammar schools gathered at the St. Rose Belmar campus to compete in eight subject areas for both team and individual awards.

Each competing school fielded a team of eight seventh-and eighth-graders who vied, one per subject area, in the categories of Current Events, English, Geography, Mathematics, Religion, Science, Spelling, and Social Studies. Individual student scores earned from the 30-minute multiple choice tests were combined to determine a team score and overall winner. 

St. Dominic students took home the first place team medal for the second consecutive year. Second and third place winners were St. Veronica, Howell, and St. Peter, Point Pleasant Beach. The top three teams share tuition certificates for use at St. Rose High School during the upcoming academic year; first place earned a $2,000 tuition certificate, while second and third place teams earned $1,000 each.

The scholastic bowl also recognized individual students who excelled in a subject area, each of them earning a $500 tuition certificate for use at St. Rose High School.  The winners in each of the eight subject areas were: Current Events, Christopher Eisekle, St. Aloysius, Jackson; in Religion, Patrick McKelvey, St. Catharine, Spring Lake; Spelling, Jonathan Alicea, St. Veronica; Social Studies, Billy Kuncken, St. Peter; English, Maura Cahill, St. Dominic; Geography, Erin Prachar, St. Rose, Belmar; Science, Ryan Palmer, St. Veronica; and Mathematics, Armelle Dejoie, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Asbury Park. 

Other diocesan schools who competed in this year’s scholastic bowl were St. Jerome, West Long Branch; St. Denis, Manasquan; and Holy Innocents, Neptune.

St. Rose High School Guidance counselor Ann Pfister-Brown served as moderator of the scholastic bowl and was pleased about the students’ competitive yet cooperative spirit. “The neatest thing is, the children are rooting each other on as they leave to go to the separate subject testing areas,” Pfister-Brown, a St. Rose High School graduate, said. “It’s very heart-warming; they are so excited, they’re clapping and enthusiastic.”