At 7 a.m., students gathered at the front of West’s parking lot, ready for a jam-packed day of competition. West’s Science Olympiad varsity gold, green and blue teams competed at the Mount Vernon Invitational Feb. 17, where teams participated in a variety of events. 

The Mount Vernon Invitational was designed to prepare enrolled teams for the upcoming Science Olympiad State competition, which will take place at the University of Northern Iowa in April. 

“I feel like the [regional] science competition at Mount Vernon was a really good experience especially for helping me and my partner prepare for the upcoming state competition,” Minna Abdalla ’26 said. 

While teams used this competition solely as preparation for the state competition, some West teams were awarded for their knowledge surrounding their events. 

“We had a lot of events today and it was really fun to see how the actual events would go,” Mrudani Ramkumar ’25 said. “My partner and I were really excited that we placed since we felt good about doing that event.”

Overall, participants report that they enjoyed both the test and social aspects of the invitational competition. 

“My partner and I weren’t super prepared for the competition, but we placed in an event, and I think we did pretty good,” Jessie Li ’25 said. “We had fun and I think that enjoying the experience is just as important as placing.”

Gallery • 8 Photos

Shanza Sami

Asif Ali '26, Ethan Lee '26, Vismitha Vuppala '24, Anjali Mathews '24, Mrudani Ramkumar '25, Jessie Li '25 and Sabrina Du '25 bite their medals in celebration after the awards ceremony.

West placed first in six events, second in five events and third in four events. Results for each team are displayed below.

Gold Team Medalists

1st – Astronomy: Richard Yang ’25

1st – Flight: Anjali Mathews ’24

2nd – Dynamic Planet: Erin Chen ’27, Athena Wu ’24

2nd – Fermi Questions: Richard Yang ’25

2nd – Microbe Mission: Sabrina Du ’25

3rd – Anatomy and Physiology: Sabrina Du ’25, Vismitha Vuppala ’24

3rd – Forensics: Athena Wu ’24

Green Team Medalists

1st – Anatomy and Physiology: Michael Lee ’24

1st – Chemistry Lab: Michael Lee ’24

1st – Optics: Jensen Lin ’27, Joseph Lin ’25

1st – Robot Tour: Jensen Lin ’27, Joseph Lin ’25

2nd – Write It Do It: Jessie Li ’25, Mrudani Ramkumar ’25

3rd – Air Trajectory: Joseph Lin ’25, Ephram Liu ’25

Blue Team Medalists

3rd – Asif Ali ’26, Ethan Lee ’26