Pioneer wins Science Olympiad State Tournament; Slauson takes second in middle school division

Pioneer High School won first place in the high school division at the Science Olympiad State Tournament held at Western Michigan University on Saturday, May 4th. Pioneer bested 46 other teams for its first state championship since 1994.

Slauson took second place in the middle school division, which had 48 teams competing.

Both Pioneer and Slauson have qualified for the 40th Annual Science Olympiad National Tournament, which will be held at Michigan State University on May 24th and 25th where the first tournament was held 40 years ago.

Clague Middle School finished in seventh place in the middle school division.

Pioneer High School teams won medals in the following events:

• Air Trajectory (3rd): Alain Zhou and Rex Bajcz
• Anatomy & Physiology (1st): Radhika Bhide and Ryan Chen
• Astronomy (2nd): Aaron Kou and Sophia Wang
• Codebusters (5th): Hyunsung Woo, Michael Wu, and Oskar Hanson
• Detector Building (8th): Justin Hu and Sophia Wang
• Disease Detectives (5th): Justin Hu and Michael Wu
• Dynamic Planet (5th): Aaron Kou and Maddy Buza
• Experimental Design (4th): Jay Bala, Maddy Buza, and Sophia Wang
• Fermi Questions (2nd): Oskar Hanson and Ryan Chen
• Flight (4th): Sophia Wang and Theo Sacks-Thomas
• Forensics (1st): Aaron Kou and Maddy Buza
• Forestry (4th): Amy Liu and Radhika Bhide
• Fossils (1st): Aaron Kou and Theo Sacks-Thomas
• Geologic Mapping (3rd): Aaron Kou and Hyunsung Woo
• Microbe Mission (6th): Amy Liu and Jessica Jia
• Mission Possible (6th): Markus Eckner and Patrick Regan
• Robot Tour (3rd): Jessica Jia and Sophia Wang
• Scrambler (6th): Alain Zhou and Jessica Jia
• Wind Power (2nd): Jay Bala and Oskar Hanson

Slauson Middle School team won six first places at this tournament – the most of any school. Slauson won top six medals in 19 of the 23 main events and in both trial events. The top eight places are awarded medals.
Slauson teams won medals in the following events:

• Air Trajectory: 6th place Caitlin Buza, Ravi Kothari
• Anatomy & Physiology: 5th place Addie Yon, Dhev Kannan
• Can’t Judge A Powder: 3rd place Jocelyn Wong, Sagar Jha
• Codebusters: 4th place Dylan Wen, Jocelyn Wong, Margaret Hsu
• Crime Busters: 1st place Jocelyn Wong, Sagar Jha
• Disease Detectives: 5th place Dylan Wen, Lilah Woolard
• Dynamic Planet: 5th place Atharva Bhide, Sagar Jha
• Ecology: 6th place Ash Shore, Atharva Bhide
• Experimental Design: 1st place Erik Saran, Margaret Hsu, Sagar Jha
• Flight: 4th place Asher Suter, Erik Saran
• Forestry: 6th place Atharva Bhide, Caitlin Buza
• Fossils: 1st place Addie Yon, Lilah Woolard
• Meteorology: 1st place Atharva Bhide, Caitlin Buza
• Microbe Mission: 5th place Annabelle Yan, Dhev Kannan
• Reach For The Stars: 3rd place Annabelle Yan, Asher Suter
• Road Scholar: 1st place Annabelle Yan, Margaret Hsu
• Tower: 1st place Asher Suter, Ravi Kothari
• Wheeled Vehicle: 4th place Asher Suter, Ravi Kothari
• Wind Power: 2nd place Asher Suter, Dylan Wen
• Mission Possible (Trial): 4th place Diego Luis-Ayala, Rohini Sen
• Pentathlon (Trial): 7th place Diego Luis-Ayala, Henry Sacks-Thomas, Iain Hennebury, Rohini Sen

The Clague State team was a 19-member team (15 primary and 4 alternate members). 

Individual medal-holders were as follows:

Ecology 1st place: Christina Zhang and Claire Svoboda

Reach For the Stars 1st place: Aarav Tirumali and Ryan John

Crimebusters 3rd place: Edwin Liang and Ethan Zhu

Mission Possible 3rd place: Christopher Liao and Rohit Giddu

Wind Power 3rd place: Jerry Zuo and Luke Zhou

Can’t Judge A Power 4th place: Edwin Liang and Jack Guo

Experimental Design 4th place: Ryan John, Jack Guo and Benjamin Wang

Fast Facts 7th place: Ryan John and Caleb Nixon

Flight 7th place: Edwin Liang and Aarav Tirumali

Microbe Mission 7th place: Claire Svoboda and Jayani Tavane

Roller Coaster 7th place: Jerry Zuo and Ethan Zhu

Tower 7th place: Jack Guo and Jayani Tavane

Codebusters 8th place: Saanvi Kulkarni, Dhananjay Prasad and Benjamin Wang

Meteorology 8th place: Luke Zhou and Jayani Tavane

Wheeled Vehicle 8th place: Claire Svoboda and Jerry Zuo

Clague team consisted of the following members:

Jack Guo, Ryan John, Jerry Zuo, Edwin Liang, Aarav Tirumali, Saanvi Kulkarni, Claire Svoboda, Jayani Tavane, Luke Zhou, Ethan Zhu, Benjamin Wang, Dhananjay Prasad, Caleb Nixon, Christina Zhang, Hazel Zechar, Christopher Liao, Rohit Giddu, Hikaru Lida, Shuhao Dong.

The students’ enthusiasm is matched only by the amount of support they receive from older sibling coaches from Pioneer High School, UM, Parents, Volunteers in the community, and administrations of Slauson, Rec & Ed, and AAPS.
The team is humbled by continued support from the Ann Arbor Community honor and the opportunity to represent the State of Michigan at the National Tournament on Saturday, May 25 at Michigan State University.