Manhattan High’s Science Olympiad team arrived in Wichita last Friday afternoon. They toured Wichita State’s campus, relaxed, had dinner, got in some extra study time. By the end of Saturday, after stealing the regional competition and months upon months of preparation, the team had taken second place at state.

“The students get so into it. The excitement… They were going up to get their medals, hugging eachother, high-fiving eachother… I’m really proud of the students. They performed very, very well. They worked very, very hard. Many of them spent late nights, gave up their weekends… They deserved their success. I could easily say that this is the best finish we’ve ever had,” coach and sponsor Richard Nelson said.

Senior Danny Aramouni has been a part of the Science Olympiad for three years now.

“I know I’m bias, but I really do think we were the strongest team there,” Aramouni said. “It was the best we’ve ever done, the closest we’ve ever come to winning state. We were 11 points from winning so it was really, really close. We were 19 points away last year and we were even closer this year.”

For the longest time, Aramouni has wanted to help get the team to the national competition.

“Not getting to Nationals by 11 points [was disappointing]. “We had a bit of bad luck in one of the events. A lot of bad luck. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong… It’s really not anyone’s fault it’s just bad luck. We’ve always felt like a team, but I think this year we’ve felt the most cohesive. It has a great feel to it and I think that helps with how we did,” Aramouni said. “I was surprised by my performance because I got a silver medal in Astronomy, which I’ve never medaled in before. Out of my four events, that was the one I medaled in and the other three, which I was more confident in, I didn’t medal in. So that was a disappointment but I’m still really glad.”

The team’s best finish yet can be partly credited to the the new class, Honors Science Investigations.

“It [the class] really helped us but also presented some new challenges we didn’t anticipate. The communication between those who are in the class and those who aren’t made it a little more challenging to know where everyone was at because it is a team thing and you have to communicate with your partners,” Nelson said. “I think it, in one way, was responsible for our success. We were successful without it but I do think we went to a little higher level this time. If it weren’t for that want fluke accident, we would have had an unbelievable score. We ended up at 116 but if it weren’t for that accident we’d have been under 100, which is unheard of.”

Nelson believes Manhattan High is a great place.

“You can be into journalism or science or athletics or music or drama… Manhattan High, I’m sure, doesn’t fill every niche for every person and there’s room for improvement, but for a student who wants to be passionate, there’s plenty here to be passionate about,” Nelson said.

Though there were some disappointments and surprises, the team is passionate about what they do and are looking forward to the upcoming year.

“It was a blast performing. It was the best day and it was fun and we did really well and I love that team. I started sophomore year and now I’m done. It’s kind of bittersweet,” Aramouni said. “It has definitely helped me learn things. I’ve learned things that I wouldn’t have otherwise and learned a lot of astronomy, anatomy, chemistry…all the sciences. And building things with magnets…it’s just a lot of learning. And all the people are great. It’s been really great making friends and connecting to other people who love science too. I’m hoping the team continues to do well and win state next year.”