At the regional tournament on the UC Santa Barbara campus on Mar. 8, 2026, the Oak Park High School Science Olympiad swept the competition, finishing in first place for the second year in a row. During the contest, the team was both nervous to keep up their streak and excited to showcase their STEM knowledge.

“We also won regionals last year, so there was definitely pressure to win again this year and prove that last year’s victory wasn’t just a fluke,” Calafati wrote. “I think everyone had a lot of mixed emotions going in, but while I was there, I saw so many people having fun and being able to make memories with their peers, which was really nice to see.”

Though the team scored well in certain sections, others needed improvement.

“After looking at all the event scores, our team scored the strongest in Bio-related and engineering events,” Calafati wrote. “The former can be attributed to a large population of sophomores in the club, who have had stellar preparation from their bio classes. As for the engineering prowess, we have a record high number of people in the club who have taken or are taking engineering classes, and this year, we’ve pushed the build event individuals to make prototypes and test well in advance to help eliminate some of the stress on competition day.”

At the awards ceremony, it was a bonding experience for everyone.

“My favorite part of competition is always the awards ceremony,” Shanmugam wrote. “The awards ceremony is where we can see our hard work pay off. It’s amazing to see everyone’s big smiles when we pose with our trophy afterwards.”

With two victories under their belt, the OPHS Science Olympiad team is preparing for their state tournament on the California Institute of Technology campus on April 12, 2026 with the goal to proceed to nationals.