Lincoln-Way Students Earn Top Places At Bridge Building Contest

NEW LENOX, IL — Students from all three Lincoln-Way District 210 high school competed in the regional bridge building contest Jan. 28 at Illinois Institute of Technology. The district said 80 bridges from more than 25 schools entered the contest, which was broken into three regions (south suburbs, north suburbs and Chicago).

In the south suburbs region, Lincoln-Way 210 had eight of the top 10 spots. Lincoln- Way East student Tori Entwistle’s bridge won the contest with an efficiency of 2258, the district said.

Lincoln-Way East’s Jackson Seida finished second, Lincoln-Way Central’s Kaitlyn Bittner finished fourth, Lincoln-Way East’s Davey Fitzpatrick finished fifth, Lincoln-Way West’s Nolan Krol and Sydney Swanberg finished sixth and seventh, Lincoln-Way East’s Jacob Falejczyk finished eighth, and Lincoln-Way Central’s Hannah Luming finished ninth.

Entwistle's first-place bridge had a mass around 19 grams (about the mass of four nickels) and held 43 kilograms (about 95 pounds). The district said Entwistle's bridge held 2258 times its own mass; the equation for efficiency is the mass held divided by the mass of the bridge.

Entwistle also received the Garcher Trophy, awarded to the most efficient bridge in the three
Chicago regions.

Both Entwistle and Seida, who earned second place, are eligible to represent Lincoln-Way East at the International Bridge Building Contest at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago May 9.

“It is great to see the students work on projects outside of the classroom and relate them to topics learned in the classroom,” said Lincoln-Way East science teacher Mike Murphy. “It was obvious from their designs and results, that these students devoted a lot of hard work and time into this project.”