The Science Olympiad team took fifth place at the Northeast Kansas Regional Competition on Feb. 28, which has qualified the team for state.

“This is one of multiple years that the Science Olympiad team has qualified to state,” Don Meier, coach, said.

The team competed in a total of 23 events against 19 other teams.

In Mission Possible, Ryan Mersmann, junior, and Nathan Helgeson, junior, placed second. Isaiah Hastings, senior, and Alice Chen, senior, also placed second in Technical Problem Solving.

In Air Trajectory, Damian Vu, senior, and Alaina Coughlin, sophomore, placed third, and so did Chris Sukstorf, junior, and Rachel Stupp, junior, in Bungee Drop and Vu and Coughlin in Chemistry Lab.

Melody Holliday, junior, Chen, and Hastings placed fourth in Experimental Design and so did Sukstorf and Stupp in Scrambler.

The team had a fifth place finish in Anatomy and Physiology with Isa Cabanas, senior, and Sukstorf.

Sixth place finishers included Chen in Protein Modeling and Helgeson in Write It Do It.

Hastings and Holliday took eighth in in “Astronomy” and It’s About Time.

The team placed ninth in several events, including Sukstorf and Stupp in Bridge Building, Chen in Cell Biology, Stupp in Fossils and Sukstorf in Green Generation.

There were also four 10th place finishes: Cabanas and Dakota Okwuone, junior, in Disease Detectives, Coughlin and Okwuone in Entomology, Cabanas and Andrew Fales, junior, in Forensics and Stupp in Wright Stuff.

In Compound Machines, Helgeson and Fales placed 11th, as well as Chen in Dynamic Planet. Vu and Coughlin placed thirteenth in GeoLogic Mapping.