The Manhattan High Science Olympiad team competed in the State Science Olympiad at Wichita State University on April 2, where the team placed fourth overall. 

“Unfortunately for the [students] there were events that didn’t work out nearly as well as we hoped they would,” Anatomy and Genetics teacher Craig Ackerman said. “Even despite that we were 13 points shy of second place and 12 points shy of third place.”

The students participated in 23 events that included earth science, physics, biology, chemistry and engineering. The team competed against the schools who made it to Nationals from the  Regionals Science Olympiad in February.

“We competed against the best of the state,” senior Akira Culbertson said. “The best were schools out of the Kansas City area, which were Blue Valley West High School, Blue Valley North High School and Olathe North High School.”

There were multiple people from MHS who placed high in their individual category, including sophomore Avesha Sharda and Allie Cloyd; juniors Vinny Sun, Julius Neumann, Tom Loub, Bepeh Amama, Sam Gido and Rohan Singh; and senior Akira Culberston.

Each student was assigned to three to four different events.

“I was assigned the categories anatomy, physiology, ornithology and environmental chemistry,” senior Eszter Chikan said. “We had been practicing all [second] semester and more so after the Regional Science Olympiad.”   

In past years the Manhattan High Science Olympiad team has placed third. The team was a little bit behind in starting the Science Olympiad this year.

“I felt like we did really well,” Culbertson said. “We were all bummed about where we placed because we were really close to third but we still had fun.”

As it was some of their teammates senior year this meant that this would be their last time participating in the Science Olympiad.

“As a senior I really wanted to make it to the National Science Olympiad,” Chikan said. “Everyone tried their best and that’s all that mattered.”