On Saturday, Nov. 19, Naperville Central’s Science Olympiad Team competed in their first competition of the season at Palatine High School.

The team left the bus circle at 6:00 a.m., and event lasted from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., making it a full day of competition.

“It was stressful at first, but also a lot of fun,” Snigdha Gorthi, freshman, said.

This competition was Gorthi’s first time competing in Science Olympiad, but she enjoyed this new experience.

Top scorers in Varsity in AAA include

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Rick Li and Anisha Reddy – 4th place (Anatomy & Physiology)
Sanjana Ramrajvel and Dev Satpathy – 1st place (Chemistry Lab)
Bethany Simos and Naraen Palanikumar – 5th place (Dynamic Planet)
Keshav Kapoor and Abhishek Bhattacharjee – 3rd place (Electric Vehicle)
Jiamin Zhu and Neya Thanikachalam – 5th place (Hovercraft)
Sanjana Ramrajvel and Saagar Moradia – 1st place (Optics)
Abhishek Bhattacharjee and Max Orr – 4th place (Robot Arm)
Dev Satpathy and Jiamin Zhu – 4th place (Write It Do It)

“It was interesting to see what everyone was doing to deal with the stress” Gorthi said. “Some people were studying last minute or doing homework, and others were playing Super Smash Bros. on the Wii or snacking on food in between events.”

Cindy Lo, a sophomore and a returning JV member, stressed the importance of these long events.

“Science Olympiad is a great way to meet new people and bond with the team,” Lo said. “Competition days are always great because your hard work pays off, and you make great memories with friends.”

Different events occurred at different times. In between events, students had the option to work on homework, or go downstairs to play Xbox games and participate in a ping pong tournament. Awards began at 5:00 pm.

“I think we did really well,” coach Leah Johnson said. “I’m always excited to see a JV team place since they are competing against our varsity, not to mention some pretty competitive teams.”

Out of fifty-six teams, Varsity placed 5th and Junior Varsity placed 16th.

Top scorers in Junior Varsity in AAA include

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Brandon Sommerfeld and Abhinav Bawankule – 6th place (Dynamic Planet)
Liam Clark and Prateek Dullur – 5th place (Electric Vehicle)
Ganesan Narayanan and Liam Clark – 6th place (Game On)
Ria Jha and Andrei Olaru – 4th place (Invasive Species)
Alex Trickey and Miles Shamo – 3rd place (Optics)
Miles Shamo and Justin Bakker – 2nd place (Robot Arm)
Prateek Dullur and Ganesan Narayanan – 5th place (Write It Do It)

“We’ve been performing pretty consistently for the past 5 years or so,” Johnson said. “The difference that would need to occur for us to start advancing to nationals would be more advanced preparation. The really top performing teams put in the time preparing for each event and thus outperform us.”

“I’m happy with our placement but do think we could do better,” Johnson said.

Their next competition is an invitational at Crystal Lake High School in January.