The West Branch Envirothon team has been dominant in the Clearfield County competition, bringing home the first place trophy (the otter) once again. This year’s Enviro”mentals” team was composed of Noah Fry, Paige Washic, Rylee Sabol, Katlyn Folmar, and Olivia Blasko, and was coached and led by Envirothon advisor, Dan Socash. The team has been working together since seventh grade, but this was the first year they competed as the top team for West Branch. The team lost out on a chance to compete last year for the trophy due to COVID-19, but when they got their chance in 2021, they did not disappoint. The Enviro”mentals” not only brought home the team championship this year, but also had a clean sweep in the competition, receiving the highest score in all five categories. All scoring for the events are based out of 100 total possible points. All of the team members work together to complete the tests but each has their speciality. Leading the environmentals in scoring was Noah Fry, who put up an impressive score of 91 in aquatic ecology. Following him was Rylee Sabol and Olivia Blasko who both scored an 84 in their categories of forestry and current issues. In soils and land use, Paige Washic was able to put up a total of 78 points, and finally, Katlyn Folmar put up a 66 in the wildlife category. The team will now go on to compete in the state competition which is composed of two parts, the field testing and then also the oral competition.
Team member, Katlyn Folmar, said, “we all studied pretty hard for the tests and had a lot of fun doing it despite how boring a 3-4 hour testing session may sound. It was cool to see our hard work pay off and to completely win the competition in a clean sweep. We are all excited and a bit nervous for states which will be held on May 10-11 (field testing) and May 25 (oral competition).”
