On Wednesday, March 4th, Harriton Science Olympiad walked into the Regionals competition held at Neumann University and returned home champions of the Southeastern region of Pennsylvania.

Harriton faced extremely talented teams, including last year’s regional victor, Conestoga, reigning States champion, Penncrest, and Bayard Rustin, winner of Conestoga Invitationals.

A team of fifteen – four seniors, eight juniors, and three sophomores – medaled in eighteen out of twenty-three events, with seven 1^st places, five 2^nd places, five 3^rd places, one 4^th place, and the rest top 10 finishes. As schools began receiving their final placements, Harriton eagerly waited to be called. Penncrest placed fifth with eight medals, Rustin, third with fifteen medals, and Harriton, first, beating Conestoga by a margin of 21 points.

In the month between Invitationals and Regionals, the team made tremendous improvements. As Mr. Gauvin put it, the various teams working on their respective events, such as Protein Modeling or Air Trajectory, became cohesive, efficient units that eventually yielded a top three finish at regionals.

Co-captain Sam Davis remarked, “The team had a great showing all around. I am impressed by how driven and diligent the team has been, especially over the span of the past few weeks leading up to Regionals. I have seen some amazing improvement in events from invitationals, and am excited to see how events will continue to progress towards States.”

Despite the feeling of euphoria that accompanied the victory, Coach Brian Gauvin told the team to take caution of Penncrest, who is one of the best schools to make up for lost points between regionals and states. The team also has to be cognizant of Bayard Rustin, a school that consistently places high at states, as well as Conestoga.

Similarly, co-captain Mirriam Lee said, “Although we won first place, the competition was too close. I’m super proud of everyone and the sheer teamwork that was shown at the competition. I just hope we can win with a greater margin at states so that we can show everyone that we are Harriton Science Olympiad”.

Harriton Science Olympiad looks to reclaim its place as the best in the state of Pennsylvania on April 25^th at the state competition at Juniata College.

A congratulations to Harriton Science Olympiad, as well as Welsh Valley Middle School and Bala Cynwyd Middle School, whose teams placed second and first in Division B, respectively, as well as to the Lower Merion High School Science Olympiad team, which placed seventh and will join Harriton at the state competition.

Awards:

1^st Place

Air Trajectory – Thomas Devlin and Katie Lewis

Anatomy and Physiology – Dayita Sharma and Pranav Pillai

Astronomy – Connor Todd and John Powell

Bridge Building – Lukas Serlin and Miranda Wager

Bungee Drop – Connor Todd and Reilly Bova

Chemistry Lab – John Powell and Eric Frank

Disease Detectives – Jamie Song and Sarah Root

2^nd Place

Compound Machines – Sam Davis and Pranav Pillai

Geologic Mapping – Connor Todd and Jordan Shapiro

It’s About Time – Sam Davis and Eric Frank

Protein Modeling – Jamie Song, Dayita Sharma, and Sarah Root

Wright Stuff – Mirriam Lee and Emmanuelle Bonin

3^rd Place

Dynamic Planet – Rafael Haber and Jordan Shapiro

Entomology – Mirriam Lee and Jordan Shapiro

Fossils – Dayita Sharma and Julia Schlaff

Scrambler – Sam Davis and Chris Fulton

Technical Problem Solving – Rafael Haber and John Powell

4^th Place

Forensics – Emmanuelle Bonin and Julia Schlaff