Mayo’s Science Olympiad team took 2nd place in the Minnesota Science Olympiad State Tournament at Bethel University on March 1st. They beat out 32 other schools, and fell short of 1st place by just 9 points! Mayo’s team has been exceptional, taking high rankings in the past several years at state. The other Rochester teams, Century and John Marshall, took 8th and 24th place respectively.
Mayo took 1st place in 3 events including Astronomy, Bungee Drop, and Electric Vehicles. The team plans on practicing other events for next year’s tournament, hoping to steal first place from Eagan and head all the way to Nationals in the coming years. Team coach, moderator, and beloved physics teacher Aaron Larson claims that the Mayo SciOly team is so fantastic to work with because “the meets are really fun, and seeing the team all learn with partners on various events is exciting during our practice sessions,” which are held in Larson’s room (2-233) and consist of using provided materials to come up with, build, calculate, and figure out all the inner workings of different experiments. Larson and other respected experts in the area, including scientists from Mayo Clinic are there to supervise and assist if needed, but it is mostly students advancing their own learning.
Placing 2nd in the state tournament are (L-R) Jaden Qiu, Jandre Alzamora, Jason Ding, James Hanstedt, Kieran Aganga, Maximilian Rivera, Kamil Kukla, Ezra Weldegabriel, Ava Howelk, Rathan Duggirala, Mitansh Bansal, Rohil Patel, Ethan Mcpherson, Luke Huddleston, and Cody Qiu.
The Science Olympiad team is going to need some fresh talent in the coming years, as many of their key scientist team members are graduating. 15 members helped lead their team to state, and 10 of them are seniors who cannot return next season. Larson claims “we could always, always, always, use new members. The best time to start is early, so there is time for new people to learn and grow with the team and at competitions.”
It’s a really fun environment if you get excited about science and meeting new people who share similar interests. There is room for everyone in the Science Olympiad; some team members concentrate in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and engineering; whereas, others may be more interested in medical sciences and biology. Whatever type of science intrigues you, join the Science Olympiad team by talking to Mr. Larson!
When asked if they were going to win next year, Larson exclaimed that the team always does their best, and hopefully that will be enough next year to push them into 1st place!
Photos courtesy of Aaron Larson
