AAPS excels at State Science Olympiad, sends Pioneer and Slauson teams to nationals

Huron High School places an impressive fifth of 54 teams, and Clague Middle School, third among 59 middle schools in the state

AAPS students delivered a standout performance at the Michigan Science Olympiad State Tournament on April 25 at Michigan State University—with Pioneer and Slauson taking first place in both the high school and middle school divisions and securing two of Michigan’s four spots at the 2026 National Tournament.

Nationals are set for May 23 at the University of Southern California.

Pioneer High School took first place in the high school division, competing against 53 other teams.  They will represent Michigan at the National Tournament, the school’s fourth consecutive National Tournament appearance. Pioneer team students won medals in 21 of the 23 events, including 8 first-place medals. They achieved a score of 89 points, setting a State tournament record for the lowest score at the high school level for in-person tournaments.

• Anatomy & Physiology: Radhika Bhide & Raymond Li (4th)
• Astronomy: Aaron Kou & Annabelle Yan (2nd)
• Boomilever: Ben Olech & Asher Suter (3rd) 
• Chemistry Lab: Wilson Ruan & Raymond Li (5th)
• Circuit Lab: Markus Eckner & Michael Wu (1st)
• Codebusters: Margaret Hsu, Wilson Ruan & Hyunsung Woo  (1st)
• Designer Genes: Maddy Buza & Annabelle Yan (3rd)
• Disease Detectives: Deven Parekh & Michael Wu (1st)
• Dynamic Planet: Aaron Kou & Hyunsung Woo (1st)
• Electric Vehicle: Asher Suter & Michael Wu (1st)
• Engineering CAD: Iain Hennebury & Hyunsung Woo (7th)
• Entomology: Radhika Bhide & Deven Parekh (4th)
• Forensics: Maddy Buza & Aaron Kou (3rd)
• Helicopter: Theo Sacks-Thomas & Asher Suter (8th)
• Hovercraft: Iain Hennebury & Ben Olech (8th)
• Machines: Theo Sacks-Thomas & Michael Wu (1st)
• Materials Science: Radhika Bhide & Raymond Li (4th)
• Remote Sensing: Aaron Kou & Annabelle Yan (1st)
• Robot Tour: Markus Eckner & Asher Suter (2nd)
• Rocks & Minerals: Theo Sacks-Thomas & Aaron Kou (1st)
• Water Quality: Maddy Buza & Theo Sacks-Thomas (5th)
• Botany (trial event): Atharva Bhide & Trixie Uhle (1st)

Slauson Middle School took first place in the middle school division, which had teams from 59 schools across the state. They will represent Michigan at the National Tournament as well. This is Slauson’s sixth state championship. Slauson team students won medals in 19 of the 23 events, including four state champions:

• Anatomy & Physiology: Anbini Premsundar & Dhev Kannan (3rd)
  Boomilever: Jack Hu & Zoe Suter (5th)
  Circuit Lab: Dylan Wen & Ethan Deng (2nd)
• Codebusters: Anushka Ganesan, Dylan Wen, Ethan Deng (1st)
• Crime Busters: Aazhini Premsundar & Dylan Wen (3rd)
• Disease Detectives: Dhev Kannan & Jonah Helms (6th)
• Dynamic Planet: Anbini Premsundar & Henry Sacks-Thomas (1st)
• Entomology: Cecilia Mills & Claire Sanchez (3rd)
• Helicopter: Henry Sacks-Thomas & Zoe Suter (4th)
• Heredity: Claire Sanchez & Jonah Helms (6th)
• Hovercraft: Cecilia Mills & Claire Sanchez (1st)
• Machines: Dylan Wen & Ethan Deng (2nd)
• Meteorology: Claire Sanchez & Tobey Yon (5th)
• Mission Possible: Anushka Ganesan & Jack Hu (2nd)
• Potions & Poisons: Aazhini Premsundar & Dhev Kannan (2nd)
• Remote Sensing: Aazhini Premsundar & Henry Sacks-Thomas (4th)
• Rocks & Minerals: Henry Sacks-Thomas & Huuna Ichikawa (1st)
• Scrambler: Anbini Premsundar & Anushka Ganesan (2nd)
• Water Quality: Aazhini Premsundar & Dhev Kannan (5th)
• Botany (trial event): Ellis Dobson & Leah Howell (3rd)

Clague Middle School placed third in the middle school division. Clague team students won medals in 15 of the 23 events, including 2 first-place medals.

• Circuit Lab: Akshanth Jayakumar & Vyom Deotare (5th)
• Crime Busters: Andre Yang & Musab Bin Muneeb (2nd)
• Dynamic Planet: Hazel Zechar & David Park (3rd)
• Entomology: Dhruv Mankame & Hazel Zechar (1st)
• Experimental Design: Kate Wang, Musab Bin Muneeb & Anna Xu (4th)
• Heredity: Anna Xu & Akshanth Jayakumar (2nd)
• Machines: Akshanth Jayakumar & Dhruv Mankame (3rd)
• Meteorology: Vyom Deotare & Shaun Zhu (1st)
• Metric Mastery: David Park & Alex Gao (3rd)
• Mission Possible: Anna Xu & Aadya Desai (5th)
• Remote Sensing: Ethan Chen & Vyom Deotare (3rd)
• Rocks and Minerals: Dhruv Mankame & Hazel Zechar (2nd)
• Scrambler: Shaun Zhu & Kate Wang (4th)
• Solar System: Vyom Deotare & Shaun Zhu (2nd)
• Water Quality: Musab Bin Muneeb & Dhruv Mankame (4th)

Huron High School placed fifth in the state among 54 teams in the high school division, their highest finish in history. Huron team students won medals in 18 of the 23 events, including 2 first-place medals. 

• Astronomy: Aarav Tirumali & Edwin Liang (3rd)
  Boomilever: Claire Svoboda & Christina Zhang (1st)
• Bungee Drop: Connor Fong & Siddharth Sangi (8th)
• Chemistry Lab: Sounak Debnath & Victor Tarca (4th)
• Codebusters: Natalie Lu, Paavani Tewari, & Maxime Song (8th)
• Designer Genes: Michelle Zhang & Claire Svoboda (8th)
• Disease Detectives: Michelle Zhang & Victor Tarca (5th)
• Dynamic Planet: Sounak Debnath & Connor Fong (3rd)
• Electric Vehicle: Edwin Liang & Maxime Song (3rd)
• Engineering CAD: Aarav Tirumali & Paavani Tewari (2nd)
• Entomology: Claire Svoboda & Christina Zhang (6th)
• Forensics: Edwin Liang & Thisali Bandaranayake (8th)
  
• Helicopter: Edwin Liang & Aarav Tirumali (1st)
• Machines: Michelle Zhang & Siddharth Sangi (2nd)
• Materials Science: Thisali Bandaranayake & Natalie Lu (7th)
• Remote Sensing: Sounak Debnath & Aarav Tirumali (5th)
• Robot Tour: Michelle Zhang & Connor Fong (5th)
• Water Quality: Thisali Bandaranayake & Claire Svoboda (3rd)

Skyline High School sent a gold bid team and placed 4th in Engineering CAD (Jerry Zuo & Jack Guo]) and 7th in the Botany trial event ([Christopher Liao & Augusto Souza]), all pictured below:

Click here for middle school results. And here for high school results.