The Manhattan High School Science Olympiad team placed fourth in their second in-person invitational meet on Dec. 6 at Mill Valley High School, as 17 members placed in the top six of an event, helping them reach a top 4 overall finish.

“Science Olympiad is a club where you pick several science related events to compete in during tournaments. What’s great about it is that there is such a wide variety of events to choose from, so there’s something for everyone,” sophomore Michael Amama said. “Generally you have one partner for each event, so it also involves lots of teamwork and collaboration.”

In MHS’s first invitational meet, they also finished in fourth place, with 13 members of the team placing in the top 6 of an event. Some examples of events that are consistently used in every year’s competitions are Anatomy & Physiology, Electric Vehicle, Boomilever, Forensics and many other science related events.

“Favorite part of competition is meeting other people and seeing what they’ve built for their events,” senior Mason Gish said. “Favorite event is Engineering CAD because I’ve never lost at it but it always is somewhat challenging.”

Some of the events are test events, some are build events and some are lab events. Each event has a unique topic or unique rule each year that will try to challenge the competitors even more.

“In order to win in Scioly, you’ve got to be able to place in the top 10 in every event,” head coach Doug Andresen said. “Right now we’re placing in the top 10 in about 18, 19 of them, so we need to get some improvement.”

The Manhattan Science Olympiad team will be heading to their third invitational of the season to help further prepare them for regionals in February and potentially state in April.

“Overall, it was a great experience which will allow us to learn from our mistakes and improve upon them before January comes around,” Amama said.