On November 15, Ward Melville’s Science Olympiad team traveled to Ithaca, New York to compete in the Cornell Invitational. Facing off against 64 teams from across the country, the varsity team finished 15th overall, while the JV team placed 36th in a challenging field that included top schools such as Montgomery High School and Syosset High School.
Science Olympiad is a national STEM competition where students compete in 23 diverse events ranging from building devices to taking tests on various scientific topics. The Cornell Invitational is considered a prestigious invitational, attracting some of the strongest teams from the region and serving as an important benchmark early in the season.
The Cornell Invitational hands out medals to the top 6 teams for each event. Ward Melville’s Varsity team earned several top 6 finishes including 5th in Astronomy, 3rd in Disease Detectives, and 6th in Experimental Design. Additionally, they placed 5th in Write It Do It, a trial event in which 44 teams competed. Varsity also had many strong performances outside the top 6 including 7th in Dynamic Planet and 7th in Material Science. The JV team also showed some strong performances, placing 10th in Electric Vehicle and 12th in Remote Sensing. JV also earned 8th in Botany, a trial event in which 28 teams competed.
The invitational gave the team an opportunity to compare themselves to their strongest New York competitors. Stuyvesant A finished 2nd and Syosset Varsity placed 4th. Last year, Ward Melville finished 3rd at States behind those two teams. Great Neck South and Jericho A also were able to outperform Ward Melville placing 5th and 8th respectively.
When asked about the team’s overall performance, co-captain Tina Xing said the team did “better than I expected.” She explained that Varsity entered the invitational with several key absences, which may have hurt their results, but the team still delivered a “decent” performance given the limited time and resources they had to prepare. She added that the JV team showed some positive surprises in their performance and explained how this is a good sign as it shows that the JV team has “both the motivation and the competence to do strongly in the future.”
Beyond the results of the invitational, Xing expressed her optimism about the team’s development. She noticed collaboration and connections forming between members that haven’t met before and hopes that the “Cornell experience for all of our members, alternates and competitors, serves as a good experience for them to bond in the future.” She added that the invitational served as a way to “not only build their competence in their events, but also their interpersonal skills and how they handle situations under academic stresses.”
Xing also acknowledged some areas for improvement, particularly a noticeable “lack of coordination,” noting that this was the first invitational she and co-captain Amartya Das led as captains. She added that some of the members’ performances could also have been stronger, but noted that, for many, this was their first invitational at the high-school (Division C) level.
Overall, the Cornell Invitational gave the team an opportunity to showcase their skills and gain valuable experiences for the season ahead. Xing said that she is most proud of the team’s “diligence and attitude,” highlighting the interest that the new freshmen and sophomores have shown. After noticing a dip in club interest in recent years, she feels confident that this year’s “interest can be sustained well into January and February.” Though she believes that the team is still in a “baby phase,” she is excited to see the team’s growth.
The team now looks ahead to Boyceville, their next invitational on December 6, as well as future invitationals with the hopes of making it to Nationals.
