Mantua – Recently, the Portage and Cuyahoga County Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) co-hosted the Area 2 Envirothon at the Cuyahoga County Fairgounds in Middleburg Heights. At that event, 32 high schools from the 14 counties that comprise the region (Ashland, Ashtabula, Columbiana, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, and Trumbull) sent teams to compete in this outdoor competition that features five challenges relating to environmental science.
Portage County brought nine teams to the event, the greatest number of teams of all the counties who participated. Crestwood, Kent-Roosevelt, Southeast and Waterloo each brought two teams, while Ravenna brought one team to the regional competition. Crestwood’s team included veteran member of their 2017 team, which represented their region at last year’s state competition.
During the day-long competition, each team competed in several performance tasks and multiple choice tests in a variety of subject-areas including aquatics, wildlife, soils, forestry, and current environmental issues. Of all the teams representing Portage County, the teams from Crestwood High School finished highest in the county, with CHS’s Monkey Wrench gang finishing in fourth place and CHS’s Kemosabes in 12th place out of 50 teams. According to Andy Brown, science teacher at CHS, and faculty advisor to the CHS teams, the top four teams from each area competition will compete at the state tournament, which will be held at Cedarville University near Dayton.
“This was the first year Crestwood has brought two teams to the competition,” Brown shared. “They were required to do things such as identify specimens, determine value of lumber, diagnose diseases, and create management plans in each of these events. And at the end of the day, they did pretty well,” Brown beamed.
“Our rookie team consisting of Domonic Picone (junior), Breanna Teece (junior), Katie Fosnight (senior), Brent Monroe (senior), and Ephraim Oliphant senior) finished 12th overall,” Brown explained. “The veteran team of Sara Miller (senior), Austin Shaffer (senior), Frank Fugman (senior), Lilly Bissell (senior), and Maddie Baker (junior) ended up tops in the county and had the highest score in the Aquatics category, which was a repeat victory. Their total score was enough to finish 4th overall and qualify for state for the second straight year,” he concluded.
Brown also noted that Crestwood is the only school from Portage County to qualify a team for the state competition in the 39-year history of the Envirothon. Not only that, Crestwood has done so twice, after having only participated in the event for three seasons.
Team captain Sara Miller added that one of the biggest challenges was getting everyone prepared, since participation had doubled over the previous year. That’s what motivated previous participants, or ‘veterans’ to step up to prepare the ‘rookies’. And apparently, that hard work and team spirit paid off, with both Crestwood teams placing in the top 12 in the county.
In addition to keeping the county’s traveling trophy for another year, the winning team received a chinkapin oak tree, which was planted on the CHS school grounds, and $300 to help fund their trip to the state tournament in June.
The local region’s other winning teams include the Brecksville Bees from Cuyahoga County, Geauga County’s Chardon High School Core Values and the Boardman Bees from Mahoning County. All four teams will represent Area Two at the State Tournament, with around 300 other teams from across the State.
