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5 with pluck excel in competition
By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE BROOKSVILLE -- Pasco High's Weevils in a Biscuit have a motto: "We have the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit," said team member April Pettit.
Team members Jamie Nattrass, Christiana Swanson, Greta Zindel, Edith Serrato and April were top scorers for Pasco County and had the top score in aquatics at the science competition Thursday at the Chinsegut Nature Center in Hernando County. "We all worked really hard on it," said Greta, who was at the competition for a second time. April and Cristiana also had one year's experience, but Edith and Jamie were at their first Envirothon. The Braddy Bunch from J.W. Mitchell High School, named for their teacher Ed Braddy, took top honors in the category of invasive species and their impact on the environment. "Those two are introduced species/biodiversity masters," Zack McLemore said of his teammates Emilia Antosiewicz and Tabitha Richards. "We're so cool," he said. The other Braddy Bunch members were Marybeth Wilson and James Chiappone. The top team at the contest was Citrus County's SpongeBob from the Academy of Environmental Science in Crystal River. It left the Envirothon with a trophy, $2,500 in scholarships (provided by the St. Petersburg Times) to be divided among the team's members, as well as a medallion for each member. The other county-level high scorers were Hernando County's Funyon's from Springstead High School and South Sumter High School's Natural Disasters team. Here are the other category winners: Forestry: South Sumter's Natural Disasters. Wildlife: Springstead's Sour Patch Kids from Hernando County. Soils: Two Guys and Some Girls from the Academy of Environmental Science, Citrus County. The Nature Coast Envirothon is a science competition for high school students from Citrus, Hernando, Pasco and Sumter counties. In all, 55 five-member teams rotated among five stations where they answered questions about aquatics, soils, wildlife, forestry, and invasive species and their impact on the environment. (One team, composed of alternates who accompanied their teams to the event, was allowed to participate but was not eligible to win.) Each team could spend no more than 25 minutes at each station. Winners were determined by numbers of correct answers. The five stations were set up and monitored by representatives from the Hernando County Environmental Planning Office (aquatics), Florida Division of Forestry (forestry), the USDA Natural Resource Service (soils), Florida Fish and Wildlife (wildlife) and Southwest Florida Water Management District (introduced species and their impacts on biodiversity). The teams that scored highest in their counties are eligible to compete in the state Envirothon April 12-13 at Silver Springs State Park. State winners may go on to the national competition, which will be held in New England. The Envirothon is sponsored by the Times, H.W. Lochner, Keep Pasco Beautiful, Countryside Engineering, Florida Power Corp., Hernando Audubon Society, Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council, Hernando County, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Publix Super Markets.
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