A Norwin High School team’s bridge made of pasta and held together by hot glue was able to hold 37.4 pounds before collapsing, winning the team first place in a competition that aims to increase student awareness in engineering.

Several hundred people watched as 19 teams from high schools across Westmoreland and Armstrong counties added weights to their pasta creations at the 13th Annual Engineering Bridge Competition at Saint Vincent College in Unity on March 11. The competition’s goal was to see how much weight the pasta bridges can hold until they collapse.

Norwin’s winning team included members Noah Bulloch, Jakob Bindas, Nic Aboud, Bekah Shuster and Tyler Naretto.

The Norwin team of Dan Smrekar, Chris Hinson, Charlie Blenko, Alex Gibala and Natalie Naponic won third place. Their bridge held 26.1 pounds before it collapsed.

Norwin’s first-place bridge received the Natalie Carbone Mangini Most Aesthetic Bridge Award. Known as the owner of the former Carbone’s Restaurant in Crabtree, Mangini was also the first woman to hold the title of scientist at the Westinghouse Electric’s Bettis Atomic Power Division. She presented the award to Bulloch.

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