A group of five Barrington High School students nearly captured the LifeSmarts national championship recently. 

The local team placed third among the 31 teams invited the national competition, which tests the consumer knowledge of participants. Barrington also held the special designation of being the only team to have each individual member score in the top five in their categories. 

Barrington High School selected as gold medal school.

"I'm very proud of the hard work and perseverance shown by my team this year," said Barrington High School LifeSmarts coach Samuel Schachter. 

Each student chose among the five LifeSmarts core categories — personal finance, technology, consumer rights and responsibilities, health and safety, and environment — and underwent individual testing along with their cohorts from 30 other states.  

Barrington High School team captain Eli Shea placed fourth in personal finance; Andrew Sheinberg placed second in technology; Michael Lamontagne placed third in consumer rights and responsibilities; Katherine Hilty placed second in health and safety; and Daniel Sheinberg placed second in environment.  

Rhode Island was the only team in the nation to have all of their students place in the top five in individual scoring.

The Barrington High School team arrived in Pittsburgh last Friday and competed in two days of intense, multi-format cumulative-score competition until Sunday, when they made the “knockout” round of 16. Ultimately, Barrington made it to the Final Four, but fell in a close match to Dallas, Pa., which went on to win the national title. A team from Virginia placed second.

"After many late night practices, we were the only team in the country to have every member score in the top five in their categories," said Mr. Schachter, who, in addition to coaching the LifeSmarts team also teaches math at Barrington High School. "I'm also very thankful to everyone who supported us including parents, community members, and Navigant Credit Union for their generosity."

The Barrington High School team earned the right to represent Rhode Island in nationals when they won the state LifeSmarts competition.