The Westside Science Olympiad team had students that qualified and succeeded in the 2019 Nebraska State Science Olympiad Tournament that occurred on Saturday, April 29.

Members of the team include Cynthia France, Oliver DeGraw, Spencer Korengel, Mayram Akramova, David Guo, Brandon Wigodsky, Elizabeth Berry, Kevin Dong, Tallon Ibarra, Bella Forman, Max Trenhaile, Fabrice Bokovi and Clare Fixely. The team was led by Physics teacher Judith Stucky. The team had their most successful finish, placing seventh at state.

“I was most proud of how they worked together and supported each other and when there was a problem they worked as a team to overcome it,” Stucky said.

One of the top finishers individually from Westside was Spencer Korengel, who said he found the event to be not only interesting but fun.

“I am proud of the work I put in and I got some medals and placed in two of my events,” Korengel said. “I have a fifth and sixth [finish]. I placed in Experimental Design and Designer Genes; they are two very different events. In experimental design it was a challenge to get the groundwork for what we were going to do for the event, and for Designer Genes, I don’t know a whole lot about genetics so it was interesting for me to like start learning about that in preparation for the event. Definitely though, it was very fun overall.”

As the team ended their season with a notable finish, Stucky encourages other students to join the Science Olympiad team for the 2019-2020 school year.

“Anyone who’s interested in science and hanging out with other people can join the team,” Stucky said. “We will be doing this again next year and it’s a lot of fun.”