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By Anna Zwahlen

Leaning on the tips of their toes in anticipation, freshmen Ethan Austin and Miles Brown listen for cracking as weight is added to their bridge Saturday, Feb. 25.

Science Olympiad competed at Johnson County Community College Saturday, Feb. 25 placing 10th out of 20 schools competing. 

Science Olympiad co-president senior Madison Koester reflects on the team’s performance at the competition. 

“Overall, the team did okay,” Koester said. “There were a lot of things that we are going to need to work on, but we did have several people medal in events and most of our events were top 10 placings.” 

Sophomore Carter Tollman, a member, explains the preparations that go into competing in a Science Olympiad tournament. 

“Science Olympiad tournaments work very similar to a track meet,” Tollman said. “Everyone has their specific events and beforehand they will prepare for them, whether that is building something for the event, or studying to do their best on the event.” 

Junior Addisyn White also competed at the meet and was proud of the team’s finish, but thought there were ways they could improve their performance for the future. 

“I am really proud of the team as a whole,” White said. “We placed 10th overall and we were only three points away from placing ninth. We can definitely improve in some parts of each event, but everyone is trying really hard to win.” 

Tollman believes that the team would have performed better if they had refrained from procrastinating. 

“As a team, we procrastinated a little and this caused us to rush a little the week before [the tournament] to get everything done,” Tollman said. 

Despite this, Koester enjoyed many different parts of the tournament, including getting the chance to bond with her teammates.  

“One of my favorite parts of the tournament was playing card games with a big group of my teammates while waiting for awards,” Koester said. “Another one of my favorite parts was when the antenna that [senior] Sydney Downey and I made performed better than expected during the WiFi lab and we were really excited about that.”