B-BP Science Olympiads Compete in Regional Competition

Bayport-Blue Point High School’s Science Olympiad team competed in the
recent Long Island Eastern Regional Science Olympiad Competition this winter, where they captured an eighth-place ranking out of the 50 competing schools.

By a mere point, the team fell just short of qualifying as the first alternate to the six teams traveling to the New York State Science Olympiad Competition.

During the regional contest, the 15 team members and two alternates
worked to make their district proud as they demonstrated their scientific
knowledge during a series of 18 events. In addition to the team’s overall ranking, members Laura Chant and Victoria Mercouris received an individual fifth-place medal for their gravity vehicle, and in total, the rest of the team scored in the top 10 in five of the 18 events.

The contest’s written events included chemistry lab, forensics, disease detective, rocks and minerals, remote sensing, forestry, anatomy and physiology, designer genes, circuit lab, triple e, thermodynamics, dynamic planet and water quality, as well as building and construction events such as gravity vehicle, boomilever, magnetic levitron, glider plane and robot arm.

The students had been training for the contest with the help of their coach
Donna Edgar and team captains Christine Bachek, Alex Gamcsik, Victoria Mercouris and Shane Trauthwein on a weekly basis since October, increasing their practice time to a daily schedule in February.

Bayport-Blue Point students have been participating on the high school’s team for the past 19 years; in the past 10 years, the team has advanced to the state competition six times and has been selected as the first alternate three times.

This year’s team members included:

Christine Bachek
Ryan Capak
Kelly Eames
Alex Gamcsik
Harry Martin
Shane Trauthwein
Laura Chant
Cassie Dooley
Erin Dougherty
Liam Driscoll
Andrew Greco
Emily Larsson
Natalie Mottl
Victoria Mercouris
Patrick Liu
Billy Baker