Max Yera co-editor-in-chief
The Science Olympiad team competed at the Antelope Valley Regional competition this past Saturday, Feb. 18. There were 33 high schools from California competing, and Beverly placed 13th overall.
Since only the top five schools advance to state, this competition will be the last of the school year.
“We registered for this competition in September and had been preparing for the competition ever since,” junior co-president Jamie Kim said.
Having competed in an invitational competition at Wilson High School in January, this was the second competition for the team this school year.
“[After competing in January] Jamie and I really hoped to encourage our team members to dig in and study hard for regionals,” junior co-president Sophia Goldberg said. “For the most part, our team really worked hard in the three weeks after our invitational competition and studied for many hours after school in order to adequately prepare for regionals.”
Only in its second active year, Science Olympiad qualified for state in this regional competition a year ago, though Kim has attributed heightened competition to this year’s early exit.
“I thought this year’s competition pool was harder than last year’s,” Kim said. “This competition definitely taught me and my teammates how we should study, communicate, listen and prepare.”
Though disappointed, both co-presidents Kim and Goldberg have expressed optimism for the team’s future and potential placement in competitions next year.
“Although we always wish to do better, I’m really proud of our team’s performance,” Goldberg said. “Hopefully we can improve for next year and be competitive.”
However, the team was able to bring home three medals in the following events:
Second place in Fermi Questions- Daniel Im and Justin Wu
Fourth place in Rocks and Minerals- Jordan Grode and Jiho Park
Third place in Ecology- Eric Youn and Jordan Grode