New Trier science olympiad brings home state title

New Trier High School is your science olympiad state champions.

The team earned the title on Saturday, April 20, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With the feat, which New Trier last accomplished in 2018, it moves on to the national finals on May 25 at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Science olympiad tournaments feature teams of 15 competing in 23 events, which challenge knowledge and skills in science disciplines such as astronomy, forestry, forensics and chemistry. Teams are ranked in each category and their rank equals the amount of team points received. The lowest total wins.

In the state championships, among 24 teams, New Trier placed first in eight events and second in five others, scoring 84 team points, just ahead of runnerup Stevenson (86 points).

New Trier placed first in anatomy and physiology, astronomy, dynamic planet, geologic mapping, robot tour, flight, forensics and tower.

Junior Malachi Noel was a part of four first-place teams and Vivian Chen part of three, while Prashu Rao, Tiana Wu, Kevin Huang, Varun Murali and Stephen Zhao were a part of two apiece.

Other medalists (top 3) were: Andrew Xia (third in detector, first in forensics, third in robot tour), Sumi Pandiri (second in experimental design), Kaci Morris (second in forestry, second in fossils, first in geologic mapping), Nicholas Circolone (third in agricultural science), Brian Ren (first in dynamic planet, second in fossils), Elan Hao (second in codebusters, second in experimental design, second in optics), Justin Lu (first in anatomy and physiology, third in disease detections), Katie Kang (third in disease detectives) and Sofia Yang (third in agricultural science).

New Trier advanced to state following a dominating performance at the regional tournament on March 9 at Oakton College, where New Trier won 18 of the 23 events en route to a first-place team finish.

New Trier’s science olympiad benefits from funding from the New Trier Educational Foundation.

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