New Trier Finishes 13th at National Science Olympiad

The New Trier High School Science Olympiad team ended its state championship season with an impressive 13th place showing at the National Tournament in Orlando, Florida, on May 16-17.

National individual medal winners included Luke Finnerty and Jonah Wolfe for Astronomy; Katie Shade and Vijay Ramamurthy for Bungee Drop; Tong Qi and Charlie Costakis for Elastic Launch Glider; Ari Wolfe and Jonah Wolfe for Mission Possible; and Katie Shade and Andy Feis for Write it Do it.

New Trier’s team was among 120 winning middle school and high school teams advancing from state-level competitions this spring. The tournament included rigorous, hands-on building and lab events led by experts from government agencies, top universities, and Science Olympiad state chapters. Events covered topics in physics, epidemiology, astronomy, chemistry, meteorology, and engineering. 

Representing New Trier were: 

Seniors: Ethan Clemmitt, Andy Feis, Byron Hopps, Ruth Lee, Tong Qi, Katie Shade, Ari Wolfe, and Sean Ye.

Juniors: Alexander Chen, Luke Finnerty, Vijay Ramamurthy, Samantha Yang, and Alex Yenkin.       

Sophomores: Charlie Costakis, Bethany David, Joshua Jiang, Lauren Newmark, Oliver Tsang, Jonah Wolfe, and Clara Yam.    

Science Olympiad is a Chicago-area-based national nonprofit organization founded in 1984. It is dedicated to improving the quality of K-12 STEM education, increasing student interest in science, creating a technologically literate workforce, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers. More than 200,000 students on 7,000 teams from all 50 states competed in 380 regional, state and national Science Olympiad tournaments last year.