Over the weekend, Grand Haven Science Olympiad came in fourth place at the state tournament. The team received 29 total medals and seven event state titles. They celebrated their victories, including first place in the Invasive Species and Electric Vehicle categories.  

Senior Anna Jullie and sophomore John Richardson won the state championship in the Invasive Species event. This being a first-time event in Science Olympiad, they had to develop a minimum 400 page three ring binder of resources from scratch. Jullie was overwhelmed with excitement when they received news of their title.

“When they called Grand Haven High School I was super shocked and so happy to have done so well,” Jullie said. “It is an incredible feeling to medal in any event, but being a state champ is huge. I have never been a state champ, plenty of seconds and thirds, so it was even more special to finally achieve that.”

Assistant coach Luke Anderson is proud of this accomplishment and believes all the hard work has paid off.

“I was super pumped about the first place result,” Anderson said. “The Invasive team stayed focused during practice and worked exhaustively on their own.  It is pretty cool to think that we’re the best in the state in this new event.”

This year, the team will not be moving on to Nationals. In order to have done so, they needed to place at least second overall. Although this is a bummer to not participate in the national tournament, the team is proud of their efforts and happy for the teams that are moving on.  

“I was happy, but at the same time a little bummed,” Jullie said. “I told myself that a team that has probably never gone to Nationals gets to go and experience an incredible experience, one that our team has experienced many times. I could never be disappointed in how we did as I know that everyone did their best and hopefully will continue to work harder for next season.”

In order to win a Science Olympiad competition, all teams must do well in their events because total low score wins the competition.  Each event is scored and then points are awarded based on the place you get.  First place gets one point and 35th place gets 35 points.  All of the unknown variables that exist in the interpretation of the guidelines for each event are given at the beginning of the season and the teams prepare to the best of their own abilities. Jullie believes that next year the overall preparation will need to improve for the competition.

“I think we all prepared very well, but it just wasn’t enough,” Jullie said. “The competition is getting much tougher, and other schools are working a lot harder than they used to. Overall, we need to bring a much higher intensity if we want to stay as competitive as we have in the past.”

Despite some feelings of disappointment,  the team had fun just as any other year and was happy with the competition.

“Some of our teammates were pretty emotional, but I was very happy and excited to have finished competing and looking forward to the medals and final placings,” Jullie said. “It was a fun day, and I couldn’t not be pleased.”