After a hard working season from the Fossil Ridge Science Bowl team, they headed to Nationals in Washington, D.C. on April 25 through the 29th. 

The Fossil Ridge Science Bowl team competed against 63 other teams all over the nation that’s based on the Department of Energy. Teams have laboratories and they host the regional events, and if you win that regional event, you automatically qualify for nationals. 

This competition differs from any other throughout the year because you are competing against the best of the best, “teams that either won the Regional, or they are so good they would have won just about any other region,” says Riedel. 

“There are no gimmies in the regional competition, sometimes you go against teams that have freshmen and sophomores and they’re not going to have the schooling that our kids who are all seniors have. It’s pretty clear who’s going to win that match right from the start but at nationals anything can happen,” says Riedel. 

“I would just really like it if people could watch five minutes of a competition. You would watch with your mouth open like how hard the questions are and how fast they answer. These kids are buzzing in and answering before the question is finished. I’ve been doing this for three years and I’m just amazed at these kids,” says Riedel.