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Solon schools win two national science crowns
(by Sue Hoffman - May 25, 2011)
Solon schools win two national science crowns
By SUE HOFFMAN
"Amazing" and "dream come true" are the words students, coaches and school officials are using to describe the first-place finishes of Solon High School and Solon Middle School in the national Science Olympiad competition last Saturday at the University of Wisconsin.
This is the first time in 21 years that the national champion teams for the high school and middle school divisions are from the same district.
For Solon Middle School, the national championship was a "four-peat." The school won the gold medal every year since 2008, when the high school took second place.
Solon High School won the national tournament in 1998 and has been in the top 10 for 11 of the last 13 years, according to team coach Donna Ross.
"Solon came in No. 1 across the curriculum in the state and now we're No. 1 in science in the nation," Mrs. Ross said, referring to the school district's top performance index score on the state report card. "This can't be done without the excellent science department, parent support and community support."
"We've been dreaming about getting both national championships for the last 10 years," Drew Kirian, middle school team adviser for 24 years, said on the bus trip back to Ohio. "We finally did it."
Sixty teams from 47 states competed in each of the high school and middle school divisions at the national tournament. Participating teams worked their way to nationals through competition from an original pool of 6,200 teams that started out last fall. Middle school teams include ninth grade.
"It's unbelievable to have the middle school and the high school win the national championship," school board Margo Morrow said.
School Superintendent Joseph V. Regano said the teams will be honored at the next school board meeting, June 13.
High school team co-captains Eugene Rabinovich and Stephanie Sang, both seniors, were on the middle school team when it first won the national championship in 2008.
"The dream started right after ninth grade when the middle school team won," said Eugene, who will major in physics at Duke University, where he received a full ride. When it happened, "it was almost like a surprise."
During the tournament, team members concentrated on doing the best they could, he said.
The team had a goal of achieving the gold medal throughout the year, said Stephanie, who will double major in sciences at Cornell University. "Getting there was a challenge by itself. Winning was completely amazing."
The national tournament provided an interesting turn of events for the Solon High School team, which came in second to Centerville High School at this year's state tournament. At nationals, Centerville was six points away from the lead and took the silver medal.
Middle school team co-captains Kevin Sun and Katrina Mikofalvy said they were pleasantly surprised by their team's first-place finish. After a slow beginning during the first two events, the team made a comeback. "In the end it was important what we did as a team," Kevin said.
In the various events, senior Danny Sperling and sophomore Aditya Nair won a gold medal in "Disease Detectives," as well as an all-expenses-paid trip with two coaches to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Other gold medalists were Eugene and Danny in "Optics" and junior Oliver Chen and sophomore Stephen Tang in "Wind Power."
The middle school team outscored second-place winner, Marie Murphy Middle School, from Illinois, by 14 points. Winning a gold medal for the team were Tyler Eston and Kevin Tang in "Storm the Castle."
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