Envirothon Team Places in Top 5

The SHS Envirothon team placed fifth in this year’s annual York County Envirothon competition on April 26, taking the second-best score in the current issues section and third in forestry.

The competition took place at John Rudy Park at 9 a.m. between 22 teams from schools all across York County.

With a score of 329, one of the two SHS teams named the Susquehannock Sweetbay Magnolia, placed fifth with only a point giving York Suburban the lead.

Envirothon Adviser and Crime Scene Investigation teacher Tyler Stipcak admits that this may be the highest that SHS has ever placed in school history.

“I don’t know about the teams before I’ve been here, but in the past 6 years as coach, this is the best performance from any of the teams,” Stipcak said.

Going into the competition, Stipcak knew the team would do well as he watched them prepare each Wednesday throughout the school year.

“My expectation is to have at least one of the teams in the top ten each year and with the team finishing fifth place, they absolutely achieved it,” Stipcak said. “I was very proud of the performance.”

Stipcak believes the team’s success is because of their hard work as well as their chemistry together and hopes to see this carry into the next school year.

“This is the second year that the Sweetbay Magnolia team has competed together, and the team members were very comfortable with their roles,” Stipcak said. “Even when they are working, they still have a light-hearted attitude and are happy to work together. They work very well together and have great team chemistry. Everyone has a sense of belonging within the team.”

The Sweetbay Magnolia was made up of juniors Josie Sedgley, Colin Baust-Crain, Alexa Viands, Bea Ricafort, Kaitlyn O’Byrne and sophomore Madden Losey.

All of the members performed highly last year, making up the SHS Crafty Caracals team and placing 10th in the 2021 competition.

Sedgley and Ricafort were the team’s captains while each of the other members were section leaders for the second team, hoping to pass on their knowledge of each subject.

“A lot of members within Envirothon have been participating since elementary school,” Sedgley said. “On the second team, we have a lot of members who are not super experienced. The two teams are basically underclassmen and upperclassmen, and, of course, the upperclassmen have a bit more experience. I think that, for the first team, it enabled us to place higher than we usually do because pulling knowledge from previous years helps a lot.”

When asked for her favorite moment of this year’s competition, Sedgley admits that it was the atmosphere of the team.

“The playful memories were the best part,” Sedgley said. “Even though we were at the competition, we still joked around with each other and had some good laughs. The moment when we learned that we placed in the top five, we knew that we were achieving something that we hadn’t done before as a team, and we were all very proud of that.”

Sedgley has high hopes for next year and is excited for the 2023 competition.

“I would hope that we make it to the top three, especially because five out of six of us are juniors this year, so we will be seniors next year,” Sedgley said. “This year, we did not have as many chances to study because AP preparation and tests in classes really took up a lot of time, and we weren’t very used to budgeting time because of how we worked through COVID.”

With their graduation next year, the rising seniors are hoping that the younger team, this year named the Susquehannock Sasquatches, will continue to succeed in their footsteps.

Forestry section leader Colin Baust-Crain plans to focus more on preparing the second team in the upcoming year and hopes that they stay involved, giving them advice for next year.

“When you start off in the beginning of the year, the actual competition seems so distant you may be tempted to push off studying,” Baust-Crain said. “But what you really need to do is begin as soon as possible, starting off with basic factual knowledge, and then transitioning into higher-level content. By doing this, you’ll be an expert by the time April rolls around the corner.”

Stipcak is optimistic that both teams will perform even better in the 2023 competition, hoping the seniors can take home first place in their final run.

“I’m hoping that both of our teams will be able to show improvement,” Stipcak said. “For our second team, this was their first high school competition, and they had a great attitude. I hope that they can build on that and get a top ten finish next year. For the Sweetbay Magnolias, with a fifth-place finish this year and tenth place a year ago, I am hoping for a top-three finish. They were very strong in two of the categories this year so two of the areas can lead to the top-three finish.”

Sedgley hopes that Envirothon can find more members to make the teams even stronger.

“I would really love it if more people decide to give [Envirothon] a chance, especially older kids,” Sedgley said. “We get to spend a day off of school, and you make a lot of meaningful connections and memories with other people. If you are a nature lover or looking to try something new, then you should give the team a chance.”