Published on January 29, 2026
Both our Middle and High School Science Olympiad teams recently competed at the Penn State University invitational, where our high school team placed 12/24 teams, and our middle school team placed 21/24 teams.
This competition has students competing against all state-level and national-level teams, with each event including tests, labs, and building challenges. This invitational event allotted students the opportunity to prepare for the upcoming Regional competition.
Our high school team had the following students compete: Trey Bergman (11th grade), Ian Boltz (11th grade), Ariel Bondarchuk (10th grade), Kiomar Cabrera (10th grade), Bailey Deen (10th grade), Liam Drummonds (11th grade), Anya Dwivedi (10th grade), Auguste Johnson (11th grade), Cameron Martens (10th grade), Nick Rossi (12th grade), Reese Shelley (10th grade), Eva Shiflet (11th grade), Zach Smith (12th grade), Rivers Smoker (11th grade), Alex Taylor (11th grade), and Sage Wohlforth (11th grade). Team advisor: Sarah Martens.
*Students who earned medals in their event
Circuit Lab
Event Description: Students had to complete tasks and answer questions about electricity and magnetism.
Student(s): Liam Drummonds and Nick Rossi
Place: 6th*
Experimental Design
Event Description: Teams were assessed on the ability to design, conduct, and report the findings of an experiment entirely on-site.
Student(s): Rivers Smoker, Zach Smith, and Nick Rossi
Place: 6th*
Engineering CAD
Event Description: Teams had to read a set of engineering drawings and collaborate to CAD parts in Onshape and then incorporate these parts with the provided components to create an assembly.
Student(s): Zach Smith and Nick Rossi
Place: 6th*
Bungee Drop
Event Description: Students design an elastic cord to conduct drops at any given height and attempt to get a mass placed in a bottle as close as possible to, but without touching, a landing surface. The drop height and mass are unknown until the day of the event. Students must calculate the stretch value of their elastic cord with the mass.
Student(s): Trey Bergman and Cameron Martens
Place: 9th
Disease Detectives
Event Description: Participants used their investigative skills in the scientific study of disease, injury, health, and disability in populations or groups of people.
Student(s): Rivers Smoker and Sage Wohlfort
Place: 10th
Hovercraft
Event Description: Students designed and constructed a self-propelled air-levitated vehicle that moves down a track.
Student(s): Ian Boltz and Cameron Martens
Place: 10th
Machines
Event Description: Teams constructed a lever-based measuring device prior to the tournament to determine the mass ratios between three test masses and complete a written test on simple and compound machine concepts.
Student(s): Trey Bergman and Ian Boltz
Place: 10th
Material Science
Event Description: Students had to use their investigative skills in answering questions related to the materials science of nanomaterials with an emphasis on chemical, physical, optical, and mechanical properties of nanomaterials.
Student(s): Anya Dwivedi and Reese Shelley
Place: 10th
Electric Vehicle
Event Description: Teams designed, built, and tested a vehicle that used electrical energy as its sole means of propulsion to travel within a set amount of time and stop close to a Target Point.
Student(s): Alex Taylor and Auguste Johnson
Place: 11th
Our middle school team had the following students compete: Sawyer Balson (8th grade), Grey Calender (8th grade), Benjamin Cox (7th grade), Warner Garrison (7th grade), Solomon Kreider (7th grade), Jackson Martens (7th grade), Mikayla McNamee (8th grade), Charles Mosley (8th grade), Aiden Orozco (7th grade), Jake Ream (7th grade), Harrison Stone (8th grade), and Vincent Wiles (8th grade). Team advisor: Lee Walters.
Click here to view Middle School results.
Great work to all of our student competitors, and good luck at your upcoming Regional Competitions!