The Science Bowl team placed 17th out of 48 teams at the South Middle Hollylake Invitational (SMH), an online tournament that took place on Oct. 13.
It was the new team’s first performance of the school year, and although the six-member subset of the team narrowly missed qualification for the elimination round, the participants — juniors Arjun Krish, Alex Ge, Quinn Gifford, Warren Chee and Max Rombakh — still showed promise.
“The SMH served as good buzzer practice for our team, as some of us may have gotten more relaxed at practices,” Rombakh said.
Last year, the A-team — made up of Class of ‘24 alumni Advaith Avadhanam and Nikhil Mathihalli, senior Skyler Mao and juniors Rombakh and Ethan Pan — placed third at regionals, falling short of a qualification for nationals.
This year, despite losing the losses to graduation, the new A-team, which includes Rombakh, Mao, Ge, Pan and Chee, is optimistic for the season, as each member shows great enthusiasm toward honing their knowledge in their respective focus subject.
The team hosted tryouts on Sept. 12, bringing in 10 new competitors for a total headcount of 26: two seniors, 13 juniors, seven sophomores and four freshmen.
The team hosts practices every Blue Day Wednesday and Thursday after school in science teacher Kathy Nakamatsu’s classroom. During these practices, the team generally reads packets of Science Bowl problems and hosts mock competitions to practice buzzing. Outside of the hosted practices, members prepare for upcoming competitions by reading textbooks and doing buzzer practice on apps like Protobowl.
The team is looking ahead to the MIT Science Bowl on Nov. 16, a tournament hosted at the college. The trip will not be a school-sponsored trip, because of a new district policy for out-of-state trips. This policy mandates groups to receive approval 6 weeks beforehand due to liability issues for the district. However, the Science Bowl team made their decision to go to MIT Science Bowl beyond the deadline, so no school-affiliate personnel will be attending the competition with the team, and the trip will be fully chaperoned by parents.
