Despite not having the class they had last year, Manhattan High’s Science Olympiad team has taken strides to perform just as well.

“We’re excited about this year. We have as good a group talent-wise as we’ve ever had,” coach Richard Nelson said. “I’d really like to see the team win the state competition this year. We’ve gotten close numerous times; we were very, very close last year. It’s even harder for us this year without the class but it’s still a possibility.”

Team members have been meeting for two hours each Saturday and those like senior Rebekah Hennesy have also been studying after school.

“[Not having the class] has made it harder for us to all be together at once. I have not been able to meet with one of my partners due to scheduling conflicts,” Hennesy said. “We’re doing our best to meet after class, but often times other extracurricular activities get in the way.”

One of Hennesy’s partners, sophomore Stephanie Fu, has also made extra plans to overcome the loss of the class.

“I’m planning on doing a lot more individual preparation and studying for my events at home … but it isn’t the same without the class. We have much less time to prepare for the competitions,” Fu said.

Nelson agrees.

“The class allowed us to do some things we hadn’t been able to do, practice some stuff that the whole team could practice,” Nelson said. “[But we’re] just [trying] to encourage the students to work hard and practice on Saturdays and get help building their projects,” Nelson said.

The team will head to Kansas City to compete in their first practice competition this year Nov. 14.

“It’s pretty early in terms of when previous practice competitions have been scheduled, but I’m hoping that the practice competition will give everyone a good idea of what is expected from the real competitions and bring us together as a team,” Hennesy said.

“I’m excited,” Fu said. “This is a chance for everyone to get to know their event better and that can only help us do better at Regionals and State. I think everybody really wants to get to Nationals this year, especially the people who were on the team last year and saw how close we were and I think we can do it if we study and prepare very well.”

As a senior, this year is Hennesy’s last chance to help get her team to Nationals.

“Each year we’ve gotten closer and closer to winning State,” Hennesy said. “This year, Nationals would coincide with graduation and I can’t think of a better way to end my time at Manhattan High than getting to compete with the team and coaches I love. The only way to do that would be to win State so needless to say, I’ve wanted us to win state every year, but this year I’ve got more motivating me to win than ever. It’s also Mr. Lamb’s last year. I would love it if we were able to give him the best retirement gift ever.”