Panther Olympiad teams excel at regionals.

March 26, 2018

Members to the Panther team include: front row, left to right, Duke Kruppe, Jessica Holy, Hunter Dickinson, Hunter White; middle row, Rosie Ramos, Aubrie Robertson, Rachel Romero, Gabe Prado, Josef Oesch, Mckenna LaCount, Logan O’Bryan; back row, Coach Sherburn, McGwire Cechura, Hailey Keeley, Katherine Webb, Luke Kruppe, Noah Saxton, Heather Schafer, Riley Bostrom, and Coach Postema. (Coach Westgate and a few team members are missing from the photo.)

Panther Olympiad teams excel at regionals.

#HesperiaCommunitySchools

HESPERIA — Hesperia Middle School and High School students had exciting finishes at regional competition at Mid-Michigan Community College Saturday, March 17.

Science Olympiad is an academic-focused extracurricular option for students interested in math, science, and engineering. Students interested in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) become “specialists” in events like forensics, material science, optics or tower building.

There are 23 different events in which students participate. A full Science Olympiad team roster is composed of up to 15 students, and most events allow students to compete in pairs, said Hesperia Coach Jennifer Sherburn.

The Panther high school team had top finishes in several events, including:
first in Dynamic Planet (Hailey Keeley and Katherine Webb); second in Astronomy (Hailey Keeley and McGwire Cechura), and third in Herpetology (represented by McGwire Cechura).

The middle school team had six students earn individual medals in seven different events: Mckenna LaCount (Anatomy and Physiology); Erik Greiner (Optics); Logan O’Brien (Wright Stuff), and Hunter White (Battery Buggy). Nikkole Frens and Sky Milner partnered for their events and earned three medals in their respective events, Write It; Do It, Ecology, and Fast Facts. Samantha Bieri and Jamie Rossman took third place in meteorology.

“Science Olympiad provides a wonderful opportunity for students to challenge themselves and find academic success outside of the classroom,” said Sherburn. The development of the middle school team has been beneficial to the program. “Students that have participated in middle school Science Olympiad find more success on the high school team. They better understand responsibility and time management. Dan (Postema) and Ben (Westgate) do a great job working with students and their projects in middle school. I am very excited about the future of the program at Hesperia. We will miss our senior members, Logan Robertson, Luke Kruppe, Hailey Keeley, Katherine Webb, and McGwire Cechura but I think the underclassmen are ready to step up and fill some big shoes.”