On April 5, 2024, Redwood’s Science Olympiad club got the chance to go to State and compete there. Club members get to share all the hopes they have for this competition!
By: Beth Musto
Friday April 5, is a very exciting day for the Science Olympiad team here at Redwood. They got the chance to go to State, and they’ve been studying hard since the start of the 2023-2024 school year.
The Co-Vice President, Eret Ybarra ‘26 says, “Very fun! I’m excited, I didn’t expect anything but I’m really excited. We studied since August, and we worked really hard a couple of weeks ago at the regional competition. And even been studying a lot for state.”
The Science Olympiad secretary, Zach Tomooka ‘26 says, “It’s been a very nice opportunity. We’ve been able to go to state before, but we haven’t had the resources to be able to do that. I think it’s been thirteen years, and this is the first year to go in a long time, so it’s very nice!”
Last year Redwood was able to go to state but sadly couldn’t. This year has been the first time in a couple of years that the team has been able to go! They are all proud and can’t wait to see what State holds for them.
“I feel very accomplished, now that Redwood has the funds to go to state, but despite the fact that it’s my first year, I am very excited! We’re in division C right now because that’s the high school, there’s only two divisions for Science Olympias, which is division B for middle school and C for high school.” Mikeyla Alisna ‘27 says.
Charlie Lastimoza ‘26 says, “It’s very exciting because this is my first year going to state! Last year we were able to go to state, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to go. I’m really excited to go see what the campus looks like because it’s in the Bay Area.”
During the school year, the whole team has been working extremely hard for this opportunity. They all have different events that they work for, whether it’s working out a problem or building something!
Tomooka says, “First we have to get everyone’s events assigned, once that’s done we take about five months to study the events independently, but sometimes we meet together. We went to the competition for regional at Ridgeview and we placed 2nd out of every school!”
Beth Musto
Beth Musto '26, is a third-year Journalist for the Redwood Gigantea and is a writer for Clubs & Lifestyles, and is the assistant editor-in-chief. She is a part of CSF and is the secretary for the Paperback Rangers Book Club. Her email is, beth.mu3554@vusd.us
Tags: clubs & lifestyles, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, visalia ca
