BETHLEHEM—Five high school students have won the Regional National Science Bowl and will be headed on an all-expenses-paid trip to the nation’s capital for the 2018 National Science Bowl.
The team won a very close championship match against another Bethlehem Central team in the competition, marking the first time in the Capital District that both teams competing in the regional championship have been from the same school.
The tournament, which was held on March 3 at the GE Research & Development Center in Niskayuna, was hosted by GE and the Naval Nuclear Laboratory, formerly known as Knolls Atomic Power Lab. The trip to the nation’s capital is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Coach Paul O’Reilly stated that both BC teams performed excellently—where the winning team had only lost one game, the other was undefeated before the final.
“It was a great day for Bethlehem High School,” said Coach O’Reilly. “The students had studied hard to get prepared for this tournament and it showed, and they should all be proud of their performances.”
The BC Science Bowl team advancing to the national competition includes Liam Karl, Talia Sanders, Maggie Sui, Kevin Sui and Connor Chung. The team along with Coach Paul O’Reilly will travel to Washington D.C. to compete against up to 60 of the best teams from across the country at the tournament which takes place April 26-30.
Bethlehem has represented the upstate New York area 12 times since 1997 and has finished in the top 16 in the nation four times, one of which was last year.