This past Saturday, March 9, Fossil Ridge High School’s Science Olympiad team competed in Regionals. With five teams of 15 members tackling 23 different events from Astronomy to Disease Detectives, Science Olympiad certainly did not go home empty-handed. Out of the 69 medals, Team 1 earned twenty, Team 2 took 17, Team 3 took an additional five, and Team 4 claimed six. And that is just the beginning of the accomplishments from Saturday’s battle of the wits. Team 1 set a record for the lowest score ever at Regionals for Fossil Ridge HS—a low score is good. This has been a record-setting year for Fossil’s hardworking students.

The adviser of the club, Mr. Dannahower, said, “[Students] can expect to practice and compete…expect good competition and some fun!” The club has changed a lot since it began. “We started 8-9 years ago, and every year we seem to get bigger and be more successful over the last 4 out of 5 years we’ve been to the national competition,” stated Mr. Dannahower. Last year, the team even won a first place medal at Nationals. This kind of success is due to the passion each student brings to the field.

Science Olympiad is much more than competition for most members. Junior Ethan Sherman stated, “I like that I get to explore topics into whatever depth I want.” Sherman competes in Disease Detectives and Protein Structure. This weekend, he won first in both categories with his teammates Curtis Chun, Charlie Wang, and Kyle Kirkby.

Freshman and Green Team member Monica Jars restated the common theme that is seen through all Science O members. She explained, “I would say friendships and learning new stuff outside outside of school. It’s events that you want to learn not just events you have to.”

The passion that students have for this event has paid off. Wish them luck at the upcoming state competition on April 27, as all 5 teams qualified.