NCS Repeats as Maryland's Science Olympiad Champs

National Cathedral School has repeated as the small-school champions at Maryland Science Olympiad's state finals, boosted by a dominating performance in which the Eagles placed in the top three in 17 of the 23 events.
 
NCS students captured nine gold medals at Johns Hopkins University on April 8. Sophia Triantis '17 captured three golds, and Jordan Gasho '18, Nicole Owens '18, Goldie Roth '17, Katie Skoff '18, and Kimberly Tan '18 each won two events.
 
With the small and large divisions merged, NCS—the only all-girls team competing—finished eighth out of 23 schools, with Roth and Tan taking a bronze medal in the Chem Lab event. Coach Susan Karpatkin also highlighted the performance of the Experimental Design team—Roth, Skoff, and Triantis—which worked with biology teacher Sheila Gupta on a new approach that helped them take sixth place overall.
 
In Science Olympiad, teams of 15 students square off in events involving biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and earth science. Some events present students with open-book exams, while others call on them to construct things. Results are tallied, and the schools are ranked. The overall winner is the one that ranks near the top in most events. NCS triumphed over Rockbridge Academy of Anne Arundel County for the team title.
 
NCS's Science Olympiad program is now in its third year (it took second place at state its first year), and this meet marked the final hurrah for several seniors who have been with the program from the beginning: India Bhalla-Ladd, Anna Christou, Gigi Grigorian, Macallan Penberthy, Elizabeth Thoren, Margaret Thoren, and Triantis. Congratulations to each of these girls for helping to launch "SciOly" at NCS.
 
As a sign of what they've helped build, more than 40 Upper School students participated this year in Science Olympiad, and for the first time, a Middle School team formed as well: Last month, that squad took top honors among Middle School teams at the first-ever DC Science Olympiad tournament.
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    • This is NCS's second small-school state title.

    • Coaches Susan Karpatkin and Greg Lefever flank members of the state champion Science Olympiad team in accepting their trophy.