Science Olympiad places third at Pembroke Hill Invitational
The team competed Saturday, Jan. 25 in their last invitational meet before a state team will be selected
By Hannah Chern
During her event “Boomilever,” senior Megan Overbaugh holds the sand bucket still as freshman Sydney Downey controls how fast the sand spills into the bucket. “Boomilever” is an event where a team of up to two aims to build the lightest suspension crane that can hold the most weight. Overbaugh and Downey’s crane was able to hold the entire bucket of sand, placing them second overall at the Pembroke Hill Invitational Saturday, Jan. 25.
January 26, 2020
The Science Olympiad team competed at their second invitational of the season at Pembroke Hill Saturday, Jan. 25. The team finished third out of the 26 schools at the meet, racking up six second place finishes in their last tournament before the state team is selected.
Science teacher Chad Brown felt the team overcame the strong competition and had a great showing
“I thought it was amazing,” Brown said. “We’ve never placed [this high] at an invitational before. The competition is very, very tough … and it was awesome to get third.”
Congrats Mill Valley, 3rd place overall!!!
— MV Science Olympiad (@MVHS_Scioly) January 25, 2020
Senior Callie Roberts feels her performance has improved as the season has gone on.
“I feel like I did a lot better than at our last meet,” Roberts said. “It was mostly just putting in the time and putting in the effort to get everything done and just knowing all the rules.”
Prior to competing in “Sounds of Music,” senior Callie Roberts adjusts the pitch of each of the bottles by adding specific amounts of water and blowing into the bottle. The team of Roberts and junior Andrew Gawith made their project using different sizes of bottles and creating different notes by adjusting the water levels in each.
Roberts feels that her experience with her events has helped her to improve as the year has gone on.
“This year… I’m doing a lot of the same events I did last year,” Roberts said. “Having the previous knowledge of how all the tests are run and how events are run and what is going to be in each test is very helpful.”
Sophomore Jordan Manning is happy that the team is able to work together as well as it does.
“[The team] is really good. Everybody’s really friendly,” Manning said. “We get along, and the team synergizes really well.”
This tournament was incredibly important for Brown because it is the last time for students to make a case for being on the regional team.
“We’re going to select the regional team after this,” Brown said. “It’s gonna be a lot of hard work … [and] we’re going to push for a top three finish.”
Since the tournament is the last one before the regional team is picked, Roberts felt extra pressure to perform well.
“There’s a lot more pressure on you,” Roberts said. “It’s very nerve racking knowing that this tournament is make or break for regionals.”
Brown is happy with all of the work members of Science Olympiad have put in throughout the year.
“This is a great team. We have a lot of great people,” Brown said. “We’ve done amazing. It’s been hard to keep focused with all the weather related cancellations, but I think we’ve had a lot of people that are putting in a lot of time and a lot of work.”
