The Weber Middle School New York State Division B Science Olympiad team took home eight medals and placed just outside of the medals in 12 additional events at the 2018 State Competition held in East Syracuse-Minoa Central High School on April 13 and 14. After finishing first place overall at the Western Nassau regional competition, the team was qualified to move onto the state competition where they went up against 230 middle school science olympiad teams, earning sixth place overall.
Comprised of students in grades six through eight, the Weber’s Science Olympiad team competed in 23 events that were used to calculate the overall team score. This year’s team finished two points better than last year’s team and earned sixth place overall.
This year, the rules changed and the team was permitted to have team alternates compete in three trial events. These first-year team members finished in the top half of the state competition field. For 12 of the team members it was their first time competing at the state level.
The team brought home eight medals and earned placings just outside of the medals in 12 additional events. Medal winners were comprised of both veteran and new team members across all grade levels.
Team members include eighth graders Jacqueline Atchley, Diana Benedicto-Jiminez, Olivia Platt, Mia Iwamura, Matthew Pierre-Louis, Silas Hokanson and Ryan Hsie, seventh graders Ariel Im, Sharmishtha Talukdar, Cha Eun Lee, Tyler Duran, Gabe Cirker, Justin Li, Katie Kors and Adam Gelb and sixth graders Tej Parekh, Advait Nair, Austin Hyde and Aine Hassett. The teams coaches were CarrieAnn Lindstadt-Iurka, Christopher Buchman, Helen Hatzignatiou and Scott VanKurin.
Weber is the only Nassau County school to qualify for the National Competition three times in the ’90s and three times in the 2000s. The team already has their sights set to qualify for the 2019 National Competition which will be hosted by Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
