Hawthorn Middle School North Places 5th in Science Olympiad

Hawthorn Middle School North's Science Olympiad team finished fifth in the statewide competition April 20 at University of Illinois-Champaign.

The Science Olympiad varsity and trial events teams competed against 44 of the best middle schools in Illinois in 23 individual science events. Hawthorn Middle North placed in the top 10 in 15 of the events, which helped secure the overall fifth place finish.

Hawthorn's Science Olympiad competitors were Neel Choudhary, Ashwini Deshpande, Kevin Diaz, Pranav Goel, Olivia Jazbutis, Nathan Ju, Yulia Kornikova, Hayden Lau, Oliver Leung, Sophia Li, Nikhil Mangtani, Hirsch Nangia, Anmol Parande, Rithva Ramesh, Aakash Setty, Lou Halperin, Trinity Hutson, Rinkey Shah and Riya Shah. They were led by Tommie Arens, Doug Shearer and Monica Lau.

Varsity medal winners were Kevin Diaz, Pranav Goel and Nathan Ju (1st place, Experimental Design); Ashwini Deshpande and Aakash Setty (3rd place, Disease Detectives); Neel Choudhary and Hayden Lau (3rd place, Helicopters); Hirsch Nangia and Anmol Parande (3rd place, Shock Value); Ashwini Deshpande and Aakash Setty (4th place, Anatomy); Pranav Goel and Rithva Ramesh (5th Place, Metric Mastery); and Neel Choudhary and Anmol Parande (5th place, Road Scholars).