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Junior dominates bridge-building competition with RE record performance

Max Wolfensberger '26 designed a bridge that obliterated the school record for efficiency in RE’s annual bridge competition, giving him an impressive – and thrilling – victory in the highly anticipated annual event that drew a record 217 entries. Marcus Mustad '26 also topped the previous RE record for efficiency with his second-place finish in the bridge-breaking finale at the Lewis Family Auditorium, which featured 16 finalist bridges.

Lucas Lafosse-Marin ’27 finished third at the March 11 event; Connor Gumbs ’25 finished fourth and seventh with two different bridges; and Sirja Joeveer ’25 finished fifth.

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Auguste Houlle ’27 won the aesthetic competition, and David Martinez ’25, Ivan Rosenfeld ’25 and Mikey Day ‘25 finished second, third and fourth, respectively. A panel of teachers selected the aesthetic winners. Faculty members Paul Natland ’02, Bob DuBard, Astrid Dalins and Luis Luis Fayat managed both competitions, which included students from RE’s engineering, architecture, physics and other classes.

The finalist bridges were tested with an increasing load to see which held the most weight by size before splintering. The bridges endured three rounds of testing that required they hold 1,300 times their weight – a higher standard than for any previous final at RE. Of the submissions, 55 came from seniors, 103 from juniors, 52 from sophomores and seven from ninth-grade students. Gumbs set an unofficial school record by submitting six bridges.

Wolfensberger’s winning bridge held 2,805 times its weight before breaking, and Mustad’s bore 2,218 times its weight.
 
See the 16 finalists here:

Place
Name and Year
Mass  
Scale
Efficiency
1
Max Wolfensberger '26
23.45
142.4
2804.7
2
Marcus Mustad '26
19.88
94.6
2217.8
3
Lucas Lafosse-Marin '27
23.94
91.4
1781.0
4
Connor Gumbs '25
19.48
73.4
1769.7
5
Sirja Joeveer '25
20.26
74.4
1723.9
6
Armin Stamate '26
24.49
86.4
1648.4
7
Connor Gumbs '25
23.34
78.4
1574.2
8
Charlotte Gould '26
24.47
81.0
1549.7
9
Angelo Perez '26
20.67
67.6
1540.5
10
Lucy Hansen '26
17.29
55.6
1526.8
11
Rudy Pages '25
19.75
58.6
1405.6
12
Diego Cruz '25
14.85
41.6
1350.1
13
Oscar Vazquez '26
23.82
64.6
1279.7
14
Jack Merrick '26
13.02
33.0
1240.2
15
Helen Ansin '26
18.15
29.8
809.7
16
Sophia Biss '26
22.86
25.0
547.6

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Middle School

2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133
Phone: 305 250 6850

Upper School

3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133
Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.