The Manhattan High Science Olympiad team placed third at the State competition on April 6 at Wichita State University. This follows their first place at Regionals at Johnson County Community College.
Team members and coaches thought the group made tons of improvement compared to other teams and that really paid off. Everyone did well.
According to assistant coach Austin Becker, there have been many tournaments that lead Manhattan High Science Olympiad to the State competition. It’s been a good year for the Manhattan High Science Olympiad.
Junior Brynn Chua competed in Optics, Air Trajectory and Towers. She felt like it was a good experience.
“I learned to think things more logistically, and conceptually, and just a lot more hands-on activities than I’m used to,” Chua said. “It was really fun. I met a lot of new people, and it was just a good environment.”
Other members on the team hoped for success going into the State competition.
Junior Jonathan Bachmeier had goals of performing well in his competitions in Chemistry Lab, Disease Detectives and Fossils, but he came away feeling like he had room to improve.
“I was disappointed I didn’t win,” Bachmeier said. “Looking back I studied hard and did the best I could and as a team we did well.”
He took second in Chemistry Lab, second in Fossils and third in Disease Detectives.
Junior Sama Nepal also felt that the competition was challenging and leaves room for improvement in the future.
“I wish I did better. I know I tried my hardest, it was very hard,” junior Sama Nepal said. “I had fun and will definitely be joining next year.”
Despite the challenges the students faced, the coaches were happy with their results.
“After State we had a celebration of the team. We are starting to look at our team for next year, starting to evaluate what potential events are being offered, and trying to build our team,” Becker said.
“We had a great year, [but we’re] losing a bunch of Varsity ,” coach Doug Andresen said. “We have lots of younger grades that are coming up. It’s always open to everybody. We’re looking for a great new year next year.”
