On Saturday, October 19th 2019, Hunter College High School opened its doors to some of the city’s brightest students for day of academic dueling in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Midwood’s Ocean Science Team — invited to the closed competition on account of their performance at the annual Hunter-hosted New York Regional Science Bowl — arrived ready to play. With students from the Ocean Science class in tow, Midwood was divided into three separate teams of five; an A, B, and C team, each selected by coach/teacher Mrs. Kimberly Lau for an optimal balance of knowledge and skill.
Midwood High School’s Ocean Science students (pictured left to right: Coach Lau, Maham Ghori, Alex Ihnatenko, Emily Chu, Lucie Lim, Aryan Islam, Declan Lin, Idrees Ilahi, Anthony Yang, Alyssa Kattan, Jennifer Yakubov, Angela Jiang, Kimberly Nguyen, Lindy Nguyen, Kevin Ahrens, Mr. Elert, Vina Weng, Henry Hua, Hang Chen, and Kevin Ng.
The teams were each a combination of the older, more veteran members of Ocean Science and younger, newer competitors. "It’s always nice to see our upperclassman supporting and encouraging our underclassman to bring out the best in young minds", Coach Lau comments.
Regardless of age however, Midwood fared very well. The day started off on a high note, with our A-Team beating Stuyvesant High School’s A-team by a 20-point lead in the first round of competition. In the final round, Stuyvesant A was defeated again, only this time by Midwood B.
Although the Ocean Science team specializes in — well — ocean science, the breadth of APs taken between them all throughout the years has deftly prepared them for the competition material. Be this as it may, a surge of excitement is still felt throughout the room at the lightening-speed of their buzzers whenever the moderator opens with "Category: Marine Biology".
Other schools in the competition included Trinity High School and of course Hunter, both of which also had A, B and C teams. B-Team Captain, Jennifer Yakubov ’20 says "Invitationals was a great opportunity to meet new people. At a competition like this, not only is there time to play and have fun, but also to see how other schools from around NYC compete, and use the insight to get better for the future".
Speaking of fun, the best part of city competitions always takes place after the final buzzer sounds. As per the team’s tradition, Science Bowls at Hunter are followed by a mandatory Shake Shack dinner. So, after a long day’s work with hands tired from buzzing, five separate tables were soon dragged together to seat the group of 19. Burgers eaten and fries consumed, the Midwood Ocean Science Team raised their milkshakes to yet another great competition over.
Alyssa Kattan (Class of 2020)