The Harriton Science Olympiad team placed third at the 30th annual National Science Olympiad tournament at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. 15 students from Harriton faced off against 1,716 students from 59 of the top teams from their respective states. This was the 21^st consecutive year that Harriton has placed in the top 10 at the national competition.

A small margin of three points separated third place Harriton from fifth place Solon High School, who had won the national competition for the past three years. Harriton beat fourth place team Mira Loma High School by an incredible one point margin. Harriton placed (top six) in 10 events and won gold in the event Elastic Launch glider (Emmanuel Bonin, Mirriam Lee, Nathan Wagman, Miranda Wager).

Students on the trip flew to Orlando on Thursday and Friday, because of a cancelled flight. On the trip were 30 team members who had been working hard since the beginning of the year.  For seniors, the competition was particularly special, as many of them had been a part of Science Olympiad since they were in sixth or seventh grade. For underclassman, this was the year to prove that a team can succeed without a large amount of seniors. Each member had a different reason to strive for success, although all were united with one common goal.

“It has been an incredibly challenging year,” said team supervisor, Mr. Gauvin, during a team meeting on Thursday. “We know that this has been a hard year. We have an incredible, incredible, incredible group of underclassman without whom, this year, the team would not have progressed as far as it has. We have more freshmen and sophomores in total on this team than we have ever had in our entire life and 8 of them are competing tomorrow at Nationals. That is an amazing thing.”

During the two weeks between States and Nationals, the team worked extremely hard in order to prepare themselves to face the toughest competition they had yet to face. Even with the disappointing upset at States, Harriton pushed ahead, putting that loss in the back of their heads. There was no stopping, no lagging, no ceasing. Instead, Harriton raced at full sprint for the span of nine days. “Yeah, sure, we have to give back our [States] trophy,” Captain Harry Smith said, “but with this giving up, just think how much motivation this will give us. This is just fanning our flame.”

One of the biggest challenges Harriton faced in the week before nationals was the lack of time. The State competition fell a short 14 days before the national tournament. This was an incredibly small amount of time to prep for Nationals, not to mention the AP/IB exams and Keystone testing that fell in between. Next year, it is expected that teams will have a full month between States and Nationals.

On Thursday, the team packed themselves onto multiple planes to Florida and readied themselves for the competition. The weekend was full of events, such as the opening ceremony in which students listen to a keynote speaker and participated in a swap meet in which students were able to meet other students from all over the country. Mr. Gauvin referred to the swap meet this year as, “the most successful swap meet we ever had.”

Students also participated in the parade of States, which is supposed to be like the parade of nations during the Olympics. Co-Captain Harry Smith said, “The Parade of States, its a cool honor, you get your flag and your team swag and everything….. We stood next to Penncrest, the other team from PA….. You walk out and you get to chat with people and wave. It was fun, it was one of the cooler things I have done this weekend.”

By 6:30 A.M. Saturday, the team arrived at the University of Central Florida. For that whole day, competitors ran all throughout the campus, racing to get to events.

Competition at the national level is extremely hard, so it is always difficult to judge how well you have done.Dayita Sharma, who placed second in Forensics, said, “Forensics felt terrible, I came out of the event and I was very upset, I thought I did not do well at all but it turned out other people did worse than me.”

Gideon Haber, Dayita’s Forensics teammate added, “There is less pressure to get first at Nationals, because it is so much less likely, but there is more pressure to not tank, because you have to do well because the tests are all a lot harder, so there is the additional pressure of ‘Oh my God, what if I tanked that event’ which usually is not there.”

Within a few hours of the last event, Harriton Science Olympiad ended up at the awards ceremony, held at the Arena at the University of Central Florida. Nervous feelings had begun to take root. Harriton then went on to capture an astonishing ten medals in various events, yet even the shining medals could not ease the anxiety that had spread like wildfire throughout the team.

After what seemed like an eternity (three hours), Dr. Gerard Putz, co-founder of Science Olympiad, stepped up to the podium, ready to deliver the final overall team results. Soon, the team was linked by a chain of hands, ready to win or lose together. Within minutes, Dr. Putz was already reciting the fifth place team, Solon HS, and the team’s nerves increased more. Penncrest High School received eighth place, four-year national champion, Troy High School received first, and Harriton was muttering amongst themselves, “What if we didn’t get top ten…” Gripping each others hands, the team leaped from their seats when Putz announced, “In third place, from the state of Pennsylvania, Harriton High School.” Several teammates broke out into relieved laughter and tears as the entire team went up to take the third place trophy.

Immediately after the awards ceremony, Co-Captains Harry and Alex said a few words to the team.“That was possibly the best end that could have had for my time of 3 years of Science Olympiad,” said Alex.  “All that mojo, all that worry about stuff we lost last year, the ending of the streak, it doesn’t matter, we are still the awesome team, we are and we still have all this crazy stuff that we can do and we showed exactly how much a state title necessarily matters.” Harry said.

He added, “We were a little bit surprised, we knew we had it in us, but at the end of the day the medals and the way our events were performing it was a complete toss up at the end, we feel like we earned it. Everyone worked really hard and it was a nice shock.”

Manny Bonin, who got 1st in the event gliders, said,“Gliders was very incredible; we were able to get our glider to fly for 32 seconds, and it was the best time we have gotten yet this year, and getting that first place medal was the best feeling ever because it means that we actually did the best that we could. The average for us is 31.4 seconds and we beat the second place team by a total of three seconds (Three seconds may not seem like much, but in this event, every tenth of a second is crucial to the final ranking).”

“There was an incredible and steep learning curve involved with this year,” said Co-Captain Harry Smith. “We haven’t won a competition this year, but it was a whole lotta learning and motivation.”
When asked if he was surprised by Harriton’s ranking, he said, “To me, it is not surprising at all that even though we didn’t win our first 2 competitions, we came out and beat the other Pennsylvania team [Penncrest, which came in 8th], beat the reigning national champion, and established ourselves as third in the nation. It has been a fantastic six years. It’s been a pleasure. I have met a lot of cool people. It has been a bumpy ride, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of excitement, a lot of nervousness waiting for awards, and a nice payoff too. I will be sad to go but it was a happy period and it has been a pleasure working with everyone.”

At the beginning of the year, Harriton Science Olympiad was a group of forty-five or so people, which narrowed down to thirty as the year progressed. The team was a collection of seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen. But as States came and passed, the spirit of Harriton Science Olympiad was bolstered and teammates became closer than ever. As many of the freshmen were not competing, that just gave them the opportunity to be everywhere. Spitting out tests in the blink of an eye, creating vast notes for the competitors, soldering circuits together, bolstering the moral support of the team. Staying at school until seven-thirty for countless nights between States and Nationals, the team grew stronger in their events, but even more important was the gradual bond that began to knit the teammates together. Laughing the same laughs, crying the same tears, Harriton Science Olympiad has become one.

“This is an amazing team, when you look at Science Olympiad, the years that we have been doing it, the effort that we have put in, this is one of the most formidable teams in Science Olympiad history. But this has been a really trying year, and if they say that you really become brothers with somebody once you spend some time in a foxhole with them when you have been through the hardest times you really come together and you have really come together as a team,” said Mr. Gauvin, soon after the awards ceremony.

In summation, Harry Smith exclaimed, “Last year we set the bar really high, but this year we came back and set it even higher: 2 top-3 national placing in 2 years. We got a streak to uphold now.”

Note: Both Ricky Sayer and Sang-o Park are members of the Science Olympiad team, Ricky Sayer serves as the “Spirit Captain.”

Medals
Astronomy – 4th Place, John Powell and Connor Todd

Boomilever – 3rd Place, Matt Zhao, Bridget Wilby and Lukas Serlin

Circuit Lab – 5th Place, Alex Herriott and Eric Frank

Compound Machines – 3rd Place, Sam Davis and John Powell

Elastic Launched Gliders – 1st Place GOLD, Emmanuelle Bonin, Mirriam Lee, Miranda Wager and Nathan Wagman

Forensics – 2nd Place, Dayita Sharma and Gideon Haber

Geologic Mapping – 4th Place, Harry Smith and Connor Todd

Mission Possible – 6th Place, Alex Herriott, Eleanor Mayes, Seth Schaffer,and Ricky Sayer

Rocks and Minerals – 3rd Place, Dayita Sharma and Gideon Haber

Scrambler – 3rd Place, Chris Fulton and Sam Davis