AAPS schools excel at Science Olympiad State Tournament

AAPS schools had an amazing day at the Science Olympiad State Tournament, which was held at Michigan State University on April 26th, winning three of the state’s four bids to the 2025 National Tournament. The tournament will be held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on May 24th.

Slauson Middle School took first place in the middle school division, which had teams from 54 schools across the state. This marks Slauson’s fifth state championship. Clague Middle School finished in a close second place, only 4 points behind Slauson, giving Clague its second national tournament bid in three years. Tappan Middle School, which restarted its Science Olympiad program just last year, finished in 13th place.

In the high school division, Pioneer High School competed against 53 other teams and finished in second place. This will be Pioneer’s third consecutive national tournament appearance and its fifth out of the last six national tournaments.

Our Science Olympiad teams are self-funded and organized through the work of dedicated parents and community volunteers. With the National Tournament less than four weeks away, our teams have very little time to raise the thousands of dollars needed to bring over 50 students to the tournament. They would welcome any financial contributions from businesses and individuals in the community to support these critical STEM education activities. Please reach out to the teams at aapsscioly@gmail.com if you would like to support their trip to Nationals.

Pioneer team students won medals in 18 of the 23 events, including 5 first-place medals, the most of any high school team:

• Air Trajectory: Jay Bala & Rex Bajcz (2nd)
• Anatomy & Physiology: Radhika Bhide & Raymond Li (7th)
• Astronomy: Aaron Kou & Maddy Buza (3rd)
• Bungee Drop: Rex Bajcz & Vedha Joshi (1st)
• Chemistry Lab: Aaron Kou & Raymond Li (7th)
• Codebusters: Hyunsung Woo, Margaret Hsu, & Michael Wu (2nd)
• Disease Detectives: Aurora Janevic & Michael Wu (2nd)
• Entomology: Amy Liu & Radhika Bhide (3rd)
• Forensics: Aaron Kou & Maddy Buza (4th)
• Fossils: Aaron Kou & Theo Sacks-Thomas (3rd)
• Geologic Mapping: Aaron Kou & Hyunsung Woo (1st)
• Helicopter: Asher Suter & Theo Sacks-Thomas (5th)
• Materials Science: Amy Liu & Raymond Li (5th)
• Microbe Mission: Amy Liu & Annabelle Yan (1st)
• Optics: Margaret Hsu & Michael Wu (2nd)
• Robot Tour: Annabelle Yan & Asher Suter (1st)
• Tower: Asher Suter & Rex Bajcz (1st)
• Wind Power: Jay Bala & Radhika Bhide (6th)

Additionally, Jocelyn Wong and Trixie Uhle won a 5th place medal in the Botany trial event.

Slauson team students won medals in 19 of the 23 events:

• Air Trajectory: Caitlin Buza, Ravi Kothari (1st)
• Anatomy & Physiology: Atharva Bhide, Dhev Kannan (2nd)
• Code Busters: Dylan Wen, Kai Ryter, Ryan Yang (1st)
• Dynamic Planet: Henry Sacks-Thomas, Sagar Jha (1st)
• Ecology: Ash Shore, Caitlin Buza (3rd)
• Entomology: Ash Shore, Atharva Bhide (2nd)
• Fossils: Atharva Bhide, Henry Sacks-Thomas (2nd)
• Helicopter: Caitlin Buza, Henry Sacks-Thomas (6th)
• Meteorology: Atharva Bhide, Tobey Yon (2nd)
• Metric Mastery: Kalina Stoev, Ravi Kothari (7th)
• Microbe Mission: Dhev Kannan, Kai Ryter (4th)
• Mission Possible: Ethan Deng, Kalina Stoev (5th)
• Optics: Ethan Deng, Huuna Ichikawa (6th)
• Potions & Poisons: Dhev Kannan, Kalina Stoev (1st)
• Reach for the Stars: Dhev Kannan, Evan Xiong (8th)
• Scrambler: Evan Xiong, Ravi Kothari (3rd)
• Tower: Ravi Kothari, Ryan Yang (5th)
• Wind Power: Dylan Wen, Ethan Deng (2nd)
• Write It Do It: Caitlin Buza, Tobey Yon (1st)

Additionally, Anushka Ganeshan, Claire Sanchez (4th) in Botany trial event; Ash Shore, Cecilia Mills, Ravi Kothari, Zoe Suter (8th) in Pentathalon trial event.

Clague team won medals in 19 out of the 23 events, including 7 first-place medals, the most of any middle school team. 

• Anatomy and Physiology: Benjamin Wang, Kate Wang (1st)
• Crime Busters: Edwin Liang, Ethan Zhu (1st)
• Ecology: Christina Zhang, Claire Svoboda (1st)
• Entomology 1st place: Dhruv Mankame, Hazel Zechar (1st)
• Helicopter: Aarav Tirumali, Edwin Liang (1st)
• Mission Possible: Christina Zhang, Claire Svoboda (1st)
• Wind Power: Akshanth Jayakumar, Andre Yang (1st)
• Experimental Design: Benjamin Wang, Ethan Zhu, Kate Wang (2nd)
• Tower: Anna Xu, Dhruv Mankame (2nd)
• Fossils 4th: Andre Yang, Edwin Liang (4th)
• Meteorology: Soham Kathula, Vyom Deotare (4th)
• Optics: Akshanth Jayakumar, Vyom Deotare (4th)
• Reach For The Stars: Aarav Tirumali, Edwin Liang (4th)
• Potions and Poisons: Benjamin Wang, Christina Zhang (5th)
• Scrambler: Ethan Zhu, Vyom Deotare (5th)
• Air Trajectory: Andre Yang, Anna Xu (6th)
• Microbe Mission: Anna Xu, Claire Svoboda (7th)
• Write It Do It: Aarav Tirumali, Saanvi Kulkarni (7th)
• Dynamic Planet: Ethan Zhu, Hazel Zecher (8th)

Additionally, Clague team placed in 3 out of the 4 trial events

• Engineering CAD: Dhananjay Prasad, Ethan Chen (2nd)
• Remote Sensing: Alex Gao, Musab Bin Muneeb (2nd)
• Pentathlon: Aadya Desai, Dhananjay Prasad, Ethan Chen, Musab Bin Muneeb (3rd)

Tappan team students placed in the top 10 in 9 of the 23 events.

• Anatomy & Physiology: Remy Salinas, Kushal Maddi (6th)
• Codebusters: Ananya Iyer, Sia Joshi, Yukttha Pradeep (10th)
• Crimebuster: Tanvi Chulaki, Yukttha Pradeep (6th)
• Disease detectives: Deven Parekh, Medha Pamudurthi (1st)
• Entomology: Deven Parekh, Krishika Anand (6th)
• Microbe Mission: Deven Parekh, Ishan Kute (2nd)
• Potions & Poisons: Tanvi Chulaki, Ananya Iyer (10th)
• Tower: Ananya Iyer, Karsten Myklebust (9th)
• Wind Power: Ishan Kute (8th)

Additionally, they won medals in 2 trial events:

• Botany: Medha Pamudurthi, Elliott Neditz (7th)
• Remote Sensing: Kushal Maddi, Tanvi Chulaki (6th)