Senior Adria Chrislip is ready to get back to state to reclaim the Science Olympiad championship title.
After winning four consecutive small school division state championships from 2021-2024, Eudora came in second last spring. This year, the team wants to set things right.
It will have the opportunity after the Science Olympiad team secured a spot in the state tournament Saturday with a fifth-place finish at the Northeastern Kansas regional competition. This will be the 10th straight year the team goes to state.
The middle school team also captured a fifth-place finish Saturday to qualify for state.
The Cardinals went to Johnson County Community College to compete against 17 schools from all classes in 23 events. Each event covered topics based in life and social science, Earth and space science, physical science and chemistry, technology and engineering, and inquiry and nature of science.
“We worked hard for this, so I’m hoping it’ll show in our results,” Chrislip said as the team awaited final placements Saturday.
The Cardinals placed the highest of any non-6A school after medaling in nine events:
Experimental Design 2nd
Ping Pong Parachute: 2nd
Water Quality 2nd
Code Buster 4th
Engineering CAD 4th
Dynamic Planet 5th
Entomology 5th
Designer Genes 6th
Remote Sensing 6th
Preparation for the Science Olympiad began in September. Over the months, the team has studied and developed plans for regionals.
Head coach Barbie Grado said both the high school and middle school teams started the year with over 40 participants. Both teams were narrowed to 15 for competing at regionals.
She said the students are motivated and want to learn and succeed.
“They work hard and they are competitive, but they just want to academically do well,” she said.
Despite the extensive preparation for the event, the team stayed motivated.
“I just really like science and the competition part,” Chrislip said. “So it’s fun to push myself more and try to do better than my opponents.”
Increased participation also was a factor in the Cardinals’ success.
“This year, I had a lot of seniors come out that had never done Science Olympiad before,” Grado said. “Every year, the kids just find a way to shine because they like learning.”
Senior Ben Pierron said he thought the team was a good way to connect with people and spend time with his classmates in the final months before graduation.
“One cool thing about today was that we got to try a new event. Getting opportunities to try new things and learn and grow,” Pierron said.
The state tournament will be April 4 at Wichita State University.
Reach Trey Myers at [email protected].
