LI teen competes in event not to forget

If you meet Christian Kalinowski, there's a good chance he'll remember your name next time.

Saturday, the Farmingdale High School senior recalled the names of 49 people after studying 52 photographs for 15 minutes at the 15th Annual USA Memory Championship in Manhattan.

That score, and his ability to remember poetry, a series of numbers and the order of shuffled cards, was better than the 18-year-old's last competition, but not enough to advance to the final round.

Kalinowski was undaunted.

"It puts me in awe," he said of watching the other 49 competitors. "It's inspirational if anything to move myself forward to keep up with it."

This year's winner was Nelson Dellis, 27, a software engineer from Miami who also won last year and will go on to the international competition at a location yet to be announced.

Kalinowski, who wants to study medicine at Cornell University or Stony Brook, trains his brain the way runners do laps. Pushing it, developing it.

"When it comes down to the basics of using your memory or using your brain in general you can never go wrong because your brain is always developing," he said. "Instead of forcing the brain to change to you, you kind of change with the brain and adapt and you grow not just physically stronger but mentally strong."

Kalinowski competed twice before he entered high school but then stopped to focus on academics and sports, though he uses the techniques to improve his grade-point average.

"I've never left the memory world," Kalinowski said.

Another Long Islander, Homer Smith, 58, of Elmont, had been scheduled to compete but arrived late and was disqualified, a spokeswoman for the competition said.