Stephen Macaitis

Juniors Ishaan Patel, Yaseen Kahn and Vincent Lin and senior Oscar Czaicki at state.

For the first time in North’s history, Science Olympiad qualified for the Illinois state competition altogether as a team. Science Olympiad medaled with fourth place in Material Science by senior Oscar Czaicki and freshman Riya Shah and third place in Forensics by freshmen Ved Bhagat and Riya Shah. Science Olympiad also finished at seventh place in Dynamic Planet with sophomores Talha Hasan and Devan Chigrugupti, seventh place in Electric Vehicle with senior Oscar Czaicki and sophomore Artharv Sood and ninth place in Robot Tour and Bottle Rocket with seniors Gisella Davila and Nicole Bitner.

Science Olympiad’s state competition occurred on April 12 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“University of Illinois offered a fun experience since we were now in an environment where there’s a bunch of other high-schoolers also competing,” said Czaicki, club president. “It was really thrilling. We had our homeroom in a nice location, and it was fun and exciting.”

Since Science Olympiad’s formation five years ago, the club has gone from non-existent at North to making the upper half of state.

“We got a really nice group of freshmen who helped us get well-rounded,” said Stephen Macaitis, Science Olympiad’s adviser. “We learned from our first two years of doing this how to research better, how to prepare better, and really, it’s all on the kids, [who] do a great job of preparing and getting ready for the events.”

In the build-up to state, Science Olympiad performed progressively better in a variety of categories to prepare themselves, including in the electric vehicle category.

“I knew my car so well that I was able to position it to beat [other schools’] 600, 500 dollar kits,” said Czaicki. “Because I tested my vehicle so much that I knew [everything about it], I was able to get first place [at regionals], which was a really good feeling.”

A philosophy based around improving with each meet was adopted. An internal goal was set to beat the Illinois Math and Science Academy and become the number-one Science Olympiad team in Kane County.

“They wanted to get progressively better with each meet,” said Natalie Rosin, one of Science Olympiad’s chaperones at State. “And then at state, there were 53 teams there, and they wanted to place within the top-twenty as a team, and they wanted to have as many individual medals and top-ten placements as they could. They ended up finishing 18th out of 53, [and IMSA finished 19th].”

In the wake of their state success, Science Olympiad now looks forward to future years with optimism, even potentially considering reaching nationals.

“[This year] marked the first time [North] advanced to the state level, and as a freshman, I was thrilled to be part of that milestone,” said Shah. “With continued effort, stronger preparation, and more involvement, I believe North has the potential to become a strong, competitive team at the state level and maybe one day even qualify for Nationals. I’m excited to be part of that journey and to help lead the way in the years to come.”