On April 9, the White Station Science Olympiad team traveled to University of Tennessee at Knoxville for the state competition. They were invited to compete in this round after they won awards at the regional competition in February at Christian Brothers University.

After regionals, the team worked even more over two months to prepare for the State level.

“We met after school and made cheat sheets, which are allowed, to bring for events,” Gyuri Han (12) said. “Basically, we prayed to the science gods.”

At the State Science Olympiad Competition, the team competed in Division C, which is reserved for high school participants. The competition had a total of 23 events that two or three people per team can enter.

The team placed first and second in protein modeling, hydrogeology, fossils, Green Generation—an environmental science test—and It’s About Time—a clock building exercise. Overall, the science olympiad group ranked fourth out of 180 teams.

With a number of seniors leaving soon, this was the final competition for the team as a whole.

“We realized a lot this year, and hopefully we have prepared next year’s crew well,” co-captain Ilyas Nazarov (12) said.