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Friday, March 20, 2009
North Andover student wins Merrimack College scholarship catapult contest
By Rodney Brown
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Merrimack College last Saturday gave out the first payment on a $60,000 scholarship to a high school senior whose catapult hurled a raw egg with the greatest accuracy.
The North Andover-based college held the third annual Merrimack College Scholarship Egg Catapult Competition as part of its New England ThinkFEST 2009 event. While students from grades 6-12 learned about such things as magnetic levitation systems and engineering of both the bridge and genetic varieties inside the Sakowitch Campus Center, the walkway outside was splattered with raw egg and shell fragments, as more than 20 high school seniors competed for the scholarship.
As the only competitor whose catapult hit the 10-inch skillet from a distance of 48 feet, 17-year-old James Vayanos, a senior at North Andover High School, was the winner. His third and final shot struck the handle of the pan no more than seven inches from its center. While other challengers came close, no one else actually struck the skillet. One did strike an observer — Thomas Roby, 17, of Lawrence, had an errant shot drop directly on top of his head. Roby was not a competitor, but was simply there observing.
By far, the largest contingent of competitors to take on the challenge of designing, building and using a trebuchet-style catapult to throw the raw missile came from Notre Dame Academy, an all-girls school in Hingham. Representing Notre Dame were 16 senior girls, and two of them were in the running after the egg-hurling part of the contest, as judges went around and interviewed those who were closest to the skillet on other judging criteria such as design strategy and materials cost.
Among those judges were the two previous winners — Jeff Costa of Rochester, now a sophomore at Merrimack, who won in 2007, and Pat McLaughlin, a freshman from Salem, N.H., who was last year’s winner.
According to Heather Notaro, a spokeswoman for the college, this year saw the largest field of competitors. For his efforts, Vayanos will get $15,000 per year for four years to become a civil engineering major at Merrimack. Vayanos said that he was headed there anyway, as he had already applied and been accepted to the program.
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