Just a week ago, the HHS Science Bowl team traveled to Billings to compete in a state tournament. They have been meeting together every Monday and Wednesday at lunch since the beginning of the year to prepare, and they came out victorious. The 5 member A team consists of Timothy Cuddy, Owen Cleary, Heath Caldwell, Johnathan Dewald, and Greyson Smith. There is also a B team worth mentioning that follows in the A teams footsteps. While both teams competed, team A came out on top. Some members of the team have been competing in the Science Bowl longer than others, but the chemistry between this team was unmatched (no pun intended).

In the Science Bowl, teams are questioned on numerous categories such from physics, chemistry, biology, math, to Earth science. The team with the best response earns points. In the end, the team with the most points is crowned state champion. All the members of the HHS Science Bowl A team had vital strengths in certain categories that ultimately led them to victory. “We each kind of had a thing that we were good at. Heath was the Earth science guy, John took charge of chemistry, Greyson and I took biology and Tim had physics,” Cleary said. “The best part about it was that it was a team effort and everyone contributed in their own way. We all had really great answers at certain times.”

To say the least, the experience had its ups and downs. The road to get to the state championship was very stressful and time consuming. The HHS team arrived at 8:00am and they left the building triumphantly at 5:00pm. Since the HHS A team was the number one seed, they had to compete the whole day. “It was definitely intense. My heart was pounding the entire time, so winning was probably one of the happiest moments of my high school career,” said Caldwell.

By winning the state championship, the team earned a spot in the Science Bowl nationals held in Washington D.C. This trip had all expenses paid for by the Department of Energy, but sadly, due to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, the trip has been canceled. Schools across the nation have been shutting down and all school-sponsored trips were indefinitely canceled. Hopefully the trip will be rescheduled. Keep your fingers crossed for these budding scientists to still have an opportunity to compete in nationals.