Science Olympiad places fourth at state competition
The Science Olympiad team placed the highest they ever have at state on Saturday, April 7
April 10, 2018
The Science Olympiad team placed fourth at state in Wichita on Saturday, April 4. This was the highest that the team has placed at state in school history.
Overall, four teams placed in the top three in their events: juniors Sydney Clarkin and Aniston Cumbie in Disease Detectives, Clarkin, junior Liz Fraka and freshman Hannah Chern in Experimental Design, freshman Alex Whipple in Mission Impossible and Clarkin and Chern in Anatomy.
Chern thought the results showed all of the work the team had put in throughout the year, and therefore was satisfied with them.
“I am really proud of the team for putting in all this work for state,” Chern said. “I felt that state this year was successful and I could not have been happier for my teammates. We all put in all of our best efforts and I was overjoyed by the results.”
Cumbie was happy with both the overall results, as well as her personal ones.
“I’ve never placed at state before until Saturday, and I placed second twice,” Cumbie said. “So that was really good, and I felt really good in the other two events.”
The results were extra meaningful because of the strong bond between teammates this season, according to Cumbie.
“Our team is really close,” Cumbie said. “It’s like a family this year so it was really cool to see.”
Chern has seen tremendous progress in the team’s performance throughout the entirety of the season.
“I think that the team did a phenomenal job this whole season,” Chern said. “From our very first invitational meet to state, I could just see our potential growing throughout the season.”
Cumbie hopes to improve on this state finish going into next season.
“We hope to slowly get better as the season goes on,” Cumbie said. “By the time we get to state [next year], we hope to at least be in the top three finishes, if not up there beating the best teams.”
