Slauson Middle School ended its season with an impressive third place finish at the annual Michigan State Science Olympiad Tournament held April 30 at Michigan State University.
More than 200 Division B schools competed in Regional tournaments before 48 qualified for the Michigan State Tournament. Representing Region 9, head coaches Jean Rennich and Lakshmi Atluri were very happy with their teams’ 2016 performances.
“Like last year, the effort put in by Olympians and volunteer coaches this year was exemplary,” said Rennich. “Some of these kids were putting in 12-plus hours a week on top of their schoolwork and other extracurriculars. They gave it 110 percent, and for this alone they are to be commended.”
Early in the year, Slauson took home the first place team trophies at both the Grandville and Hudson Invitationals. Then, in March, a young Slauson team of six eighth graders, six seventh graders, and three sixth graders decisively won the Regional Tournament at Hillsdale College. Slauson finished the day with an overall team score of 39 points across the 23 events, ahead of second place team Clague (80 points).
This same team of 15 Olympians went on to represent Slauson at the State Tournament. Slauson finished third place overall with a score of 201 points behind Science Olympiad Division B powerhouses Meads Mill (139 points) and Lakeshore (163 points).
The Slauson team events that earned medals at States were:
First place: Air Trajectory (Jack Bajcz, Ashish Venumuddula), Disease Detectives (Sriram Garapati, Tushaar Kapoor), Green Generation (Sarah Baybeck, A. Venumuddula), and Meteorology (Katherine Bajcz, Manish Venumuddula); Second place: Reach for the Stars (Garapati, Sri Chandana Vangavolu), and Wind Power (A. Venumuddula, M. Venumuddula), Third place: Dynamic Planet (Vangavolu, M. Venumuddula), Fossils (Garapati, Vangavolu), and Write It Do It (Baybeck, Aditi Ganesan); Fourth place: Food Science (Ganesan, Owen Rennich); and Fifth place: Anatomy (Nilesh Tripathy, A. Venumuddula), Bridge Building (J. Bajcz, Erik Hanson), Crave the Wave (Anna Klinger, Vangavolu), and Road Scholar (Baybeck, Garapati).
Other Slauson events that placed at States were:
Bio-Process Lab (Deeya Shetty, M. Venumuddula), Bottle Rocket (J. Bajcz, K. Bajcz), Crime Busters (Klinger, Shetty), Elastic Launched Glider (Rennich, Tripathy), Experimental Design (Ananyaa Asthana, Kapoor, Tripathy), Invasive Species (Asthana, Klinger), Mission Possible (Hanson, Rennich), Picture This (Klinger, Shetty), and Scrambler (Ganesan, Rennich).
Slauson Science Olympiad would like to thank the Slauson PTSO and the AA PTO Thrift Shop for their financial support this year.
Be the first to comment