The Mark Keppel Science Bowl team competed at the regional National Science Bowl competition on Saturday, January 28 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Unfortunately, they were not able to make nationals.
The team, consisting of senior captain Jason Xian, junior Desmond Lai, sophomore Caitlyn Yang, and freshmen Kayton Truong and Aaron Wang, studied together every week in preparation. As the competition date drew near, they practiced daily and participated in scrimmages. Subjects that Science Bowl tested included biology, earth science, astronomy, physics, chemistry, energy, and math.
Each of the 24 high schools at Science Bowl were divided into five brackets, and the top two teams of each bracket advanced to the second round, Double Elimination. The winner was decided in the final Championship Round, where the top two teams from Double Elimination competed for the regional title. Keppel was put into a bracket with reigning champion Troy High School among other strong teams. This is the main reason why they suffered two losses in their bracket, disabling them from moving on to Double Elimination. The winner of this year’s regional competition, Troy, will represent Los Angeles County at the national finals in Washington DC.
Despite their losses, Xian commented, “I have never seen so much potential [in the team] before…I know they will succeed in the future.” Xian hopes the best for his “young team”.
