Science Olympiad ended the season with a neck-breakingly close tie for first place. They tied with Carmel with a state record of 32 points, and lost the tiebreaker based on the number of first places each team received, placing in second place. 

“(There was) just a lot of disappointment, especially after losing by two points a couple of years prior,” Stephen Heritage, senior and captain, said. “So (it was) disappointing, but (I am) also proud that we did so well.”

The Munster Science Olympiad team found out their scores through a technical accident. The score sheet was scheduled to be released after the award ceremony. However, the award ceremony was delayed, but the score sheet releasement was not. 

“We were all waiting for results to come out. Then I got a text from someone from out of school saying, ‘Yo, it’s on the website,’” Arman Kumar, junior and captain, said. “First I just scrolled and saw Carmel first, I didn’t even see the tie. I saw that tie a few minutes after, because I wanted to check the scores. We were all here, and we were disappointed at first to realize we were that close. Carmel is really good this year so I can’t be too disappointed with tying with them.”

In Science Olympiad, each team member’s placement in their event counts to the team’s score. With teamwork, they can advance to nationals if they place first. 

“It was so crushing because we all had a part to play,” Iris Gong, junior and captain, said. “(So) we all kind of took blame on ourselves, just like, ‘If I did this one thing better, we could have won. It was only one point, that’s all we needed.’ And I think that really hit all of us hard individually.”

Even with such a close chance at getting first, Science Olympiad remembers what they did accomplish. 

“Overall, we did really well. I’m proud of how the whole team did,” Arman said. “Every placement was top three, so for state competition that’s insanely well. And our invites season went well too. We had good placements (at) every invite we went to.”

With their accomplishments in mind, they celebrated their wins at State and look forward to a combined end of the year party with Academic Super Bowl and TEAMs.

“At the end of the night, we all accepted it,” Iris said. “We went to Froyo and had a good time there and I think at least our night ended on a high note.”