Two brothers placed first and second at Okanagan College’s 36th annual spaghetti bridge building contest on Friday.
Okanagan College student James Dessert took home top prize for his bridge, which held 137.94 kilograms (304.1 pounds) before breaking. Placing second was Justin Dessert of Charles Bloom Secondary School in Lumby. His bridge held 128.55 kg (283.4 lbs) before shattering.
For winning, James Dessert won $1,500.
“I’m happy with my bridge this year, but, of course, I would have liked it to hold even more weight,” said James Dessert, who placed first in 2014, second in 2018, 2017 and 2016 plus third in 2015. “I’m ready for next year and will be making some improvements to hold even more weight.”
“I’ve always had fun building these bridges year after year and it definitely got me interested in engineering,” he added.
For the last two years, Justin Dessert has taken top spot. But not this year.
“It feels great to win and I’m definitely going to be bragging about this for sure,” said James Dessert, who is enrolled in mechanical engineering at Okanagan College
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Justin Dessert told Global News his bridge should have held more – last year, his design held 237 kg — but figured his latest creation was brittle due to lack of humidity.
All told, more than 250 competitors, from Grade 7 students to post-secondary students, took part in the contest.
“It’s a lot of fun. When the spaghetti starts to fly and things start to shatter, there’s a range of emotions,” said event spokesperson Tyler Finley. “There’s a lot of excitement, there’s a little bit of disappointment, but it’s a lot of fun.”
Categories included team building, building as an individual and the heavyweight competition, which, according to Finley, “is where the real fun starts.”
Finley said “there’s a lot of science and math” that goes into building a spaghetti bridge, “but at the end of the day, everybody gets the exact same type of pasta, the same glue, the same regulations, so it’s very tightly orchestrated. A lot of science and ingenuity goes into it.”
Finley said competitors build a wide range of bridges, “but you never know. Year in, year out, competitors come and their bridges never look the same.
“The high school students may come in Grade 10 all the way up to Grade 12. They come back in post-secondary and their bridges have evolved; they get bigger, they get stronger, they get more intricate throughout the years, so that’s really cool to watch.”
It may be great fun to build a spaghetti bridge, but Finley said the real exercise behind the gathering is to “opening students’ eyes to science, tech, math, engineering and some of the career options out there.”
Results
- Heavyweight
First: James Dessert (Okanagan College, Kelowna, B.C.). Bridge weighed 799.61 grams, bridge held 137.94 kg - Second: Justin Dessert (Charles Bloom Secondary, Lumby, B.C.). Bridge weighed 916.14 grams, bridge held 128.55 kg
- Third: Stefan Trajkov, Luiz Fernandez and Shafat Ismail (Red River College, Winnipeg). Bridge weighed 999.36 grams, bridge held 114.99 kg
- Fourth: Joshua Greencorn and Riley Jackson (Anchor Academy, homeschool). Bridge weighed 564.85 grams, bridge held 12.01 kg
Secondary (lightweight)
- First: Tyson Kamstra, Joel deHoog and Eli Jansen (King’s Christian School)
- Second: Sienna Collins, Maddy Darlington, Caroline Bernath and Taylor Blenkin (Okanagan Mission Secondary)
- Third: Juliette Schilling, Maya Ufimzeff and Arashjot Hehar (George Elliot Secondary)
- Fourth: Tori Hansen and Alivia Grey-Goodman (Springvalley Middle School)
Team building secondary
- First: Sarah Congdon, Rudi Fink and Tyler Blumethal (King’s Christian School)
- Second: Haley Partridge, Clayton Reay (King’s Christian School)
- Third: Tyson Kamstra, Joel deHoog, Eli Jansen (King’s Christian School)
Team building post-secondary
- First: Clayton Uhlig and Keyvan Khadem (Okanagan College)
- Second: Nita Joubert, Adam Thomson, Stefan Queen and Brendan Horsfield (Okanagan College)
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