On March 27, approximately 40 West High students competed in the Iowa Science Olympiad. The competition was held at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). Students formed 3 teams of 15 early in the year and prepared for the multiple types of competitions they could compete in. 

Their hard work paid off with West High’s Gold Olympiad team winning a fourth-place spot out of 22 teams in the state. This team was made up of Akhil Bharanidhar ’22, Biswash Bhattarai ’23, Jonathan Chen ’22, Nathan Chen ’23, Kyle Chi ’23, Maya Chu ’23, Henry Dai ’23, Heidi Du ’23, Saara Engineer ’23, Gabe Esch ’23, Zoey Guo ’22, Adeline Lasswell ’24, Hanae Matsumoto ’23, Aman Reddy ’23, and Ashley Seo ’23. 

In the 23 separate categories that the team competed in, they got third place in one, second place in six, and first place in one. 

Johnathan, a member of the Gold team, said this about the competition. “Since the tournament was the final part of our season, I think that it (optimally) ended up being a showcase of expertise, rather than pure competition. Regardless of whether or not their events went really wrong or really right, I think the team was still able to enjoy the day and their progress.”

In addition to the accomplishments of the Gold team, three students from the West High Blue team, Anna Song ’25, Anjali Lodh ’25 and Sabrina Du ’25 placed fourth overall in a singular event called Codebusters.